A political bug that could have eaten into the entrails of the government’s credibility or even its very existence was removed by RSS Sarsanghachalak Dr Mohan Bhagwat when he laughed off the question that he ever suggested a retirement age for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Both Bhagwat and Modi are turning 75 next month and the former reassured the assembly of top RSS leaders and Delhi’s media that neither he nor anyone else need retire at 75.
The retirement controversy was ignited early last month at a book launch when Bhagwat quoted the late RSS veteran Moropant Pingle’s joke on retirement at 75. Amidst this big breaking news of vote of confidence for Modi by Bhagwat and Trump’s tariff the day earlier, what got lost was a RSS’s redefinition of itself, Hindu Rashtra, Hindu, and its attitude towards Muslim and Christian minorities. In a no-holds barred exposition of RSS ideology and its projections, the RSS probably for the first time unveiled an inclusive agenda for itself and its future.
The RSS celebrated 100 years of its founding (on September 27, 1925 in Nagpur) in Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan with a three-day lecture series or vyakhyanmala by Bhagwat on August 26, 27 and 28. He made the clarification about the lack of retirement age for RSS functionaries (Modi remains an RSS volunteer and was a former full-timer or pracharak) on the third day of the lecture series on “100 year of Sangh journey – New Horizons”. Interestingly, this reassurance came after Modi praised the RSS to the skies in his Independence Day address just 10 days earlier.
Politically and organisationally, the RSS is on an upswing. Its volunteers run the country, and it remains the nation’s agenda-setter. Yet, it has set out to redefine itself as a consensus-building organisation that respects the Constitution and celebrates India’s diversity, accepting religious and linguistic differences. The RSS might point out that it was always so and that it is merely reiterating its position. Well, vyakhyanam, in Indian languages, means explanation or commentary.
If the supreme leader of the organisation is offering a commentary on the RSS ideology to dispel “misconceptions”, it only means that the organisation understands that at least a section of the people had hitherto perceived the RSS as communal, sectarian, militant, violent, fascist and primarily anti-minority. The RSS chief has completely refuted all these claims and put out an agenda for consensus, coexistence and confluence of all faiths.
This is a giant transition from the old slogan attributed to the Sangh ––– Hindu, Hindi and Hindustan. Instead, Bhagwat has proclaimed all languages of India as national languages; all people of India as having the same shared DNA; and that Hindu and Muslim are one people with just different rituals (puja padhati). The RSS was always known for pursuing an exclusivist idea of Hindu Rashtra, where Hindus have primacy. However, Bhagwat has redefined Hindu Rashtra as one where non-Hindus are not left behind.
While reiterating that the RSS always stands for organising and uniting the entire Hindu society, Bhagwat has made an elucidation of the idea of being Hindu: one who believes that all paths lead to salvation, respects other belief systems, doesn’t make others change their religion, doesn’t fight over faith and live peacefully along with others, upholding the tradition and culture of India. This is not how the world had perceived the RSS all along. Hindu Rashtra as envisaged by Bhagwat is a place for peaceful coexistence of all religions, where the prime unifying force is nationalism and devotion to the nation as personified or rather deified as Bharat Mata.
Well, this is secular nationalism or Gandhian nationalism at its best ––– “Bharat Mata ki Jai, Hindu-Musalman ki Jai and Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai” were the prime slogans of the national movement. Further, Bhagwat, without an iota of doubt, stated that Islam will remain in India just as it has been here since the time of its founding. He addressed the issue of Hindu-Muslim contradictions as products of past conflicts and present lack of confidence in both the communities to come forward and hold hands.
To say that to be united is not to be uniform, that Ashfaqulla Khan inspires the RSS as much as Ram Prasad Bismil and that we all are one people –– we the people –– is indeed a statement of inclusive transformation. The glue of this oneness, according to Bhagwat, is shudh satwik prem or pure, spiritual, love of Indian brotherhood taking everyone along. This is not even the maximum good for maximum people but happiness for all.
This has been an extremely well-articulated attempt to open the RSS arms to embrace the Muslim community. While answering questions on street names, Bhagwat says that the RSS is opposed only to names of foreign invaders not Muslims. And as an illustrative example, he said streets should be named after Vir Havildar Abdul Hamid (Param Vir Chakra awardee) and former President APJ Abdul Kalam.
The grand message of peaceful and fruitful coexistence also has an appeal to Christians and Muslims not to identify with Europeans and Arab/Turks. Of course, religious conversion remains anathema, but there too, Bhagwat says he has been reassured by the Catholic Church that it does not promote conversion.
Is all this for real? In fact, one of the questioners even asked how long it would take for this message to reach the foot soldiers. When the supreme leader speaks so passionately, quoting Gandhi, Tagore and Abul Kalam Azad, the message becomes weighty enough to percolate down to the lowest level. No volunteer could be seen, at least on official videos, wearing the RSS uniform and Bhagwat categorically abjured violence and refuted allegations of a militant character for the organisation.
These promising expositions are going to be tested on the streets of Nuh, Alwar or Sambhal against cow vigilantes and militant pilgrims who assume proprietary rights of nationalistic assertions. That there is no need to sport a religious flag along with the national flag on the Independence Day is a message that hopefully gets conveyed. Till then this lecture series will remain an enigma.
No comments:
Post a Comment