By Subhoranjan Dasgupta / The Telegraph
The sociopolitical world view of the BJP and the Sangh parivar is riddled with severe contradictions. Along with its lip service to secularism, it constantly indulges in the impossible effort to revere disparate figures like Gandhi as well as Savarkar and Godse in the same breath. Prabhat Patnaik, emeritus professor of social sciences at JNU, dissects these irreconcilable anomalies in this dialogue with Subhoranjan Dasgupta, professor of human sciences.
Q: When Narendra Modi is abroad, in Japan or the US, he pays homage to Gandhi standing in front of his bust. At the same time in Bihar, his senior minister, Giriraj Singh — to give just one flagrant example — hails Godse as a ‘patriot’ and ‘worthy son of India’. Modi does not protest. How would you explain this drastic doublespeak?
Patnaik: Many people may not know that the RSS had openly celebrated Gandhiji’s assassination by distributing sweets, and that Nathuram Godse, according to his brother’s testimony, had never left the RSS, his action being in conformity with the RSS attitude. This attitude is also reflected in that of the BJP which is fundamentally opposed to the secular agenda of our freedom movement and to Gandhiji in particular who had worked strenuously to maintain communal harmony. (The RSS and the BJP deny these charges.)
The Giriraj Singh-Pragya Thakur position eulogising Godse, therefore, represents the true feelings of the RSS and of the core BJP, leaving out here the non-RSS outsiders who may have joined the BJP for opportunistic reasons and who may not share to the same extent the RSS antipathy towards Gandhiji. In the core BJP, therefore, there is no ‘double-think’ on the matter of eulogising Godse, though there is ‘doublespeak’ that is forced on it by Gandhiji’s popularity with the masses.
In paying obeisance to Gandhiji, the BJP and Narendra Modi opportunistically try to ingratiate themselves with the popular mood while concealing their own position which is fundamentally different. The height of this opportunism was reached when for a while it had re-christened its ideology ‘Gandhian Socialism’ despite being neither Gandhian nor socialist. Interestingly, when it abandoned this tag, there were no ideological struggles within it or angry resignations, indicating that nobody had taken it seriously anyway.
It is for the same opportunistic reason that the BJP tries to appropriate Netaji who is well-known for his secular commitment and abhorrence for communalism.
This story was originally published in telegraphindia.com. Read the full story here