By Ashutosh
Is India heading for a historical accident? It’s a troubling thought. It upsets me no end and I pray that it should not happen but I dread saying that unfortunately the country is moving in that direction at a rapid pace. If people thought that after the 2024 general elections the BJP would carry out a course correction and would desist from a divisive and communal agenda, then they all were living in a fool’s paradise. The Narendra Modi government that tried to popularise ‘Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas aur Sabka Prayas’ has swiftly moved towards ‘Batenge toh Katenge’, after the elections. Not that I ever believed that ‘Sabka Sath’ was a secular and all-encompassing rhetoric but at least it was not so brazen and there was some moral wrapping. The communal agenda was packaged well in an attractive attire. With ‘Batenga toh Katenge’ that pretence is gone and now it is out in the open, and RSS too has endorsed it. But this is not surprising, as this is their true self. This is a reflection of what Golwalkar said long ago.
Many of my left liberal friends, and also those who are close to RSS, have told me that RSS has changed a lot and it should not be viewed from the old prism; we should not quote from old books of RSS to analyse or assess the RSS of the present. I have always advocated that the success of the RSS lies in its being underestimated by its critics and its friends. It has always used deception techniques to camouflage its real intent and successfully hoodwink its adversaries. Its talk about Hindu Unity is basically the result of its hatred towards Islam. In private many of its leaders and supporters don’t mind saying this and cite historical reasons for what they say and what they believe. It is for this reason that I found it difficult to believe, when a few years back RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said in Delhi that “there can be no Hindutva without Muslims”, that the RSS was changing. A very senior member of the BJP went so far as to say this to me that if Mohan Ji insists on this then he would sit on a dharna. Another member said, “if this is what we are supposed to believe today then why were we told the day we joined RSS, that Muslims are a threat to the country.”
Mohan Bhagwat did not stop with that statement. He went ahead and said “Our DNA is the same.” He meant that DNA of Hindus and Muslims is same. When litigation about the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura gained momentum and courts ordered an enquiry to find out if temple was demolished to construct a mosque, then Bhagwat said “why search for Shivling in every mosque.” In between there was news that he had met with one of the very respected Muslim leaders, Ashraf Madni. This was interpreted as an attempt to tell the Muslim community that RSS did not believe in ‘othering Muslims’ and doesn’t treat Muslims as ‘enemy of the country’. There was every reason to believe if RSS chief was saying this, then it had to be believed; a certain benefit of doubt had to be given. But I was sceptical.
This story was originally published in freepressjournal.in. Read the full story here.
