No, one wasn’t shocked by the fact that the RSS men decided to travel down from Nagpur to New Delhi to hold a three-day long meet to try and project themselves as progressive liberals! Why this U-turn came as no shocker because of the simple fact that the RSS has always followed a policy of unleashing several voices in our midst, to create an atmosphere dripping with chaos and confusion.
Perhaps, by undertaking this latest exercise the RSS decided to indulge in a public relations exercise for the BJP. After all, the sheer violence unleashed by the right-wing brigades in the last four years is getting out of control, painting the right-wing in horrifying shades. Of course, they couldn’t have bothered if news reports in foreign media were not detailing lynching and other communal attacks against the minority communities in the country.
With that, Modi government’s image dented in those far-away lands, where he loves to travel, armed with fairy-tale speeches! Not really realising that in this day and age, camouflages are easy to rip off, masks are not difficult to be pulled away. Not to overlook the realities back home, where large sections have begun to realise that the government is indulging in that typical divide and rule strategies to grasp power just about somehow.
With these build-ups, the RSS had to step in, to help out the BJP rulers of the day. After all, the two are linked and inter-linked. To quote from academic Shamshul Islam’s book Know The RSS — Based on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Documents (Pharos Media)-“BJP not independent of RSS. … The RSS leadership keeps on harping that BJP is an independent political organisation and does not work under the dictates of the RSS. It is pertinent that one compares this information with the facts available in the official publications of the RSS.
The central publication house of the RSS, the Suruchi Prakashan, has published a book, Param Vaibhav Ke Path Par (The Road to Glory) in 1997 giving details of more than 40 organisations created by the RSS for different tasks. The BJP as a political organisation figures prominently in it, clubbed with the ABVP, Hindu Jagran Manch, Vishva Hindu Parishad, Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Sanskar Bharti. … In this book the BJP figures at number three in the list of prominent organisations created by the RSS. This book discusses the creation and development of the BJP under the aegis of the RSS in full three pages.”
In fact, Shamshul Islam further details, “There has always been a conscious attempt to create confusion about its different fronts which provide RSS with the opportunity to dissociate with any of these as per its convenience. For instance it used Hindu Jagaran Manch (HJM) for attacking Christians in the late 1990s and when public opinion, media, and Parliament seemed to turn against it, RSS denied any relation with HJM. … When nefarious designs of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, Dharam Sansad were exposed before the nation, RSS announced that they were independent organisations. Interestingly, it was often seen mediating between the BJP-led government (1998-2004) and these fronts. … It will be interesting to know that many of these organisations have been organised in a clandestine manner, a characteristic of a Fascist set-up.”
It would be also significant to point out that around 2010, Khushwant Singh had commented, “All along the motivating factor for the Hindutva parties has been Islamophobia. The entire motivating factor behind the RSS is anti-Muslim. In fact, today when Mohan Bhagwat says that the RSS is open to other communities and has Muslim and Christian members too, it’s to be taken with a pinch of salt because the whole thrust behind the RSS Hindutva parties has been anti-Muslims. In fact, lately I have been introspecting on the very word /term — Hindutva — which brings along that distinct concept of rabid communalism, and so why not drop the H to it — Indutva. … Yes, Indutva is the word! As Indutva stands for Indian-ness and it could carry much more appeal and has softer touch to it.”
Khushwant had also brought into focus another fact. “Don’t overlook the fact that before Jinnah had come up with the two-nation theory, it was Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, VD Savarkar, who had come up with the Hindu nation theory. In fact, Lala Lajpat Rai had even drawn a map of divided India — along religious lines. Whatever the RSS had been trying ever since the country’s Independence they seemed to get now!
“Fascism well and truly crossed our threshold and dug its heels in our courtyard. We let the fanatics get away with every step they took without raising a howl of protest. They burnt books they did not like, they beat up journalists who wrote against them, they openly butchered people for believing in a different God.
“The carnage in Gujarat, the Mahatma’s home state, in early 2002 and the subsequent landslide victory for Narendra Modi spelt disaster for our country. The fascist agenda of Hindu fanatics is unlike anything India has experienced in its modern history. For the last several years I have been seeing signs of fascism creeping in. Private senas are used to unleash terror on minority segments and most Indians do not seem to realise the magnitude of this dangerous trend, the very magnitude of intolerance though signs are writ large.
“MF Husain had to live in exile, his paintings were burnt, girls molested in Mangalore pubs, killings in Kandhahar, all that propaganda in circulation — of Christians converting (though the reality is that the Christian population in the country has actually gone down), the Sangh keeps whipping those old prejudices against the Muslims.
“Hindutva theory does not believe in treating all nationals as one, on the same footing. There’s that discrimination against the Muslims and Christians, culminating in the very destruction of the Babri masjid, the massacre of Muslims in the 2002 Gujarat pogrom, the murder of Christian missionaries and burning of the Bible. All these destructive events destroying the notion that Hinduism is tolerant.”
And if one were to read Professor Jyotirmaya Sharma’s book Terrifying Vision — MS Golwalkar, The RSS and India (Penguin), then several more ‘terrifying’ facts to the RSS emerge.
To quote from Sharma’s book The Ram Janambhoomi Movement, “the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Gujarat riots of 2002 are just a few examples of the impact Golwalkar’s legacy has had on the move towards a certain brand of radical Hindu nationalism. In Golwalkar’s mental universe , there were two permanent enemies, the Muslims and politics .These two are the greatest impediments in the way of the Hindu Rashtra regaining its power and glory.”
To quote these lines of Golwalkar from Sharma’s book, “Within the country, there are so many Muslim pockets , i.e , so many ‘miniature Pakistanis’ …such ‘pockets’ have verily become centres of a widespread network of pro — Pakistani elements in this land . …The conclusion is that , in practically every place there are Muslims who are in constant touch with Pakistan over the transmitter …Right from Delhi to Rampur to Lucknow, the Muslims are busy hatching a dangerous plot, piling up arms and mobilizing their men and probably biding their time to strike from within when Pakistan decides upon a armed conflict with our country.” So, this is the reality to the RSS!
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