HIREN GOHAIN - The Ghostly Power of the RSS is Haunting the Indian State
Rahul Gandhi, whose
remarks in general have nothing out of the ordinary, at least speaks his mind
without equivocation. To heckle him, as RSS zealots do, for allegedly taking a
U-turn on his statement about the murder of Mahatma Gandhi seems a common
enough tactic with them – turning things upside down and making things hazy
with law and logic. Actually, the courts have confronted him with a quandary:
mere clarification of his position on the RSS’s involvement in the Gandhi
murder won’t do. He must either tender a full and formal apology, or face
trial. He has chosen to take the
bull by the horns. There is no real contradiction in the position he has
taken.
The problem lies in
the mystery and obscurity surrounding the RSS’s modus operandi. There is some
credible evidence in the public domain, especially Nathuram’s brother Gopal on
record, that both the Godses were devoted members of the RSS but had
denied their links with it to save
the organisation from public opprobrium and wrath following the
murder of Gandhi. The RSS has claimed both had been shown the door some time
before the murder, but there is no document or record to support it.
On the
other hand, there is not a trace of evidence that they had received a command
from the top leadership to commit the murder. Now, that by itself, does not
rule out some connection. Many enquiry commissions over the years
have concluded that RSS men had a hand in fomenting some major communal
riots, though there is no document to prove it. At the same time, it is
impossible that an organisation like the RSS, known for its iron
discipline and the implicit loyalty of its members, would allow them to join in
rioting without prior knowledge. Hence, settling the question of RSS
involvement in the murder of Mahatma Gandhi is no easy task. But it is also
clear that it cannot be absolved of suspicion about its role.
As the RSS has
come into the limelight in recent years, more such ambiguities and perplexities
seem to dog its steps. It has spawned numerous organisations and outfits whose
activities are marked by street disturbances, disruptions of rallies of parties
opposed to the Sangh ideology, and open or veiled threats against those who
condemn agitations upholding the sanctity of the cow and the primacy of
Hindutva. At times, it proudly gloats about the reach and depth of the
Sangh parivar. But there are also times when it strictly and stoutly denies its
links with them, claiming that they are different organisations that follow
their own goals.The public is hard put to make sense of this and shrugs off the
perplexity. However, the general impact is to further narrow the space for
democratic dialogue and clear the ground for one-sided unilateral assertion.
What makes the scene
even foggier is the scale in which these forces seem to operate and the issues
on which they force public attention. While it is certainly
a blatant misuse of power that a host of public monuments are named after
Indira Gandhi and her scions, the public remained cool to such glorification
save for the sycophants. But now we are faced with obscure names from the RSS
pantheon being plastered on similar monuments and even the re-naming of some
with names favoured by the new court culture. Suddenly Akbar the Great, by all
accounts a remarkable historic figure, becomes persona non grata.
The reasons cited are hardly convincing. And in the history textbooks
assiduously promoted by institutions such as the Vidya Bharati in some states,
vast stretches of history turn into waste dominated only by a handful of
“freedom fighters” like Shivaji and Rana Pratap. One would have welcomed some
attention to a great neglected figure like Sher Shah Suri, the builder of the
Grand Trunk Road (so named by the British) that opened communication and
commerce between regions till then insufficiently connected and galvanised the
economy of India.
But no, the heroes have to be from a narrow band. Even
Ashoka’s achievement is scaled down on the plea that his espousal of dhamma weakened
India’s defences, stamping out the incontestable fact that through the mission
of universal peace he achieved the same objective as costly military campaigns.
The RSS prides itself
on the dedicated and selfless service of organisations promoted by it to the
cause of suffering humanity, and unbiased people have not stinted praise where
it is due and right. But recently there were press reports that
very young children of impoverished tribal parents of Assam, some of them
Christians, have been taken away from them with the promise of better care
and education. Journalists like Neha Dixit have found out that they are being
turned into hard-core missionaries of Hindutva without their parents’ knowledge
or consent, and further that for two years since they were taken away, their
parents have not had any contact with them. Charges of child-trafficking and
brain-washing have been raised and Seva Bharati, the RSS affiliate
involved, has stoutly denied any wrong-doing. The clamour about the matter died
down as mysteriously as it first burst into the open.
Since 1991, or rather
the beginning of the new millennium, the Indian state has been devoting all its
energies to promoting corporate interests to the neglect of its foundational
commitment to providing for general development and welfare of the people. The
trickle-down theory in its starkest form has been dogmatically upheld. And with
globalisation and liberalisation releasing passions like greed and spite
against fellow-men like never before, the law and order situation has touched
its nadir.
Communal hatred in all its fury is stalking the land. And
it is awful how the state looks on while the worst elements strike at the very
roots of a civilised polity. The role of the state, once a divided media has
gone to town about their respective versions of an incident, is to carefully
whittle it down to an insignificant legality. An enquiry commission comes out with
a report that Rohith Vemula was not a Dalit, thus reducing an enormous tragedy
to a triviality. Nearly a year after the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq, a
forensic laboratory has reported that the meat Akhlaq was charged with storing
was indeed beef. Accepting it for a fact, does it justify the murder and
exonerate the murderers?
An
extra-constitutional authority
The crux of the matter
seems to be the exact relationship between the BJP and the RSS. It is shrouded
in the same kind of mystery. From time to time, the link is virtually explained
away. Oh, it is only ideological inspiration that the RSS provides, nothing
more. Or they pursue the same objectives but on different planes, and so on.
But one event underlined the intimacy and depth of the relationship.
Following
completion of one year in office, senior members of the BJP cabinet at the
centre presented reports on the performance of their ministries
to the RSS. It was openly stated that the RSS being the BJP’s mentor
and guide, is entitled to receive such reports. The charge of
extra-constitutional authority was simply brushed aside. But there are also
times when top leaders of either organisation takes pains to demarcate their
boundaries, and the RSS is declared to be a “purely cultural” body. The essentially
and ineradicably secular character of our constitution, signified not only
by explicit reference in the Preamble but also by the general tenor of
its text, is in danger of erosion thanks to bizarre enactments like a Jain monk
sitting above the governor’s chair delivering a homily on
dharmacontrolling politics like a man controlling his wife in the Haryana
legislature. People have become too confused to challenge such grave
improprieties. If this scenario is allowed to roll on, one is not sure where it
will end.
Already national
cultural institutions, whatever their limitations, have been suborned to make
room for shameful compromises on the serious scholarly and scientific ends to
which they are dedicated. A recent Frontline report has
detailed absurd and utterly superstitious formulations of medicines prepared
from cow urine as a cure-all. A steam-rolling centralisation of the education
system, a process unhappily endorsed by the courts, has made it more vulnerable
to all kinds of hocus-pocus in the name of traditional knowledge – undoing
centuries of painstaking research by scientists and scholars. Thus there are
tell-tale signs everywhere of the penetration of RSS ideology in all spheres of
public life, under the cover of law and patriotism. The programmes of such
institutions are also being manipulated to sideline serious reasoning and
factual research.
Under such
circumstances it is imperative that serious jurists, lawyers,and public women
and men of eminence raise pointed questions on the role of the RSS in our
polity, and on the accountability deficit in the whole matter. With such
over-riding powers, the RSS is under an obligation to publish its constitution
and the rules it follows, and clarify its relationship with the state. The
constitution that Sardar Patel compelled it to adopt, clearly eschewing
all concern with politics, needs to be restored, and there must be a clear
avowal if any changes have been made in it and whether these are justified by
law.
Hiren Gohain is an
academic and scholar. He lives in Guwahati.
see also
The Broken Middle - my essay on the 30th anniversary of 1984
The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Inquiry Commission Report (1969)
The Abolition of truth
RSS tradition of manufacturing facts to suit their ideology
The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Inquiry Commission Report (1969)
The Abolition of truth
RSS tradition of manufacturing facts to suit their ideology
