Hate Transcends Limits: Whither Diktat by RSS Supreme Leaders?

After the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was formed, it went on creating many organisations steeped in its ideology of Hindutva or Hindu Nationalism, a concept based on the Aryan race, Brahminical values and the land from Sindhu to Seas.

The RSS has given birth to over 100 such organisations. Many other organisations have sprouted that may not be a formal part of the Sangh Parivar, as known popularly, but have the same ideology. These include association of sadhus and sants (saints) outside the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or VHP, the cow vigilantes as well as those out to initiate violence at the drop of hat in the name of Hinduism. It seems many such aggressive organisations are spouting things that go much beyond the limits RSS wants to put on its followers.

For cow vigilantes, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a statement that “murder in the name of cow is not acceptable”, just a few hours later a Muslim man was done to death on this issue.

Apart from the phenomenon that is continuing, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the significance of love, harmony, and brotherhood are central to the teachings of Lord Christ. He also urged people to strengthen these values.” Just a couple of days later, vigilante groups and even Bajrang Dal groups attacked a person in Ahmedabad who had dressed as Santa Claus and was distributing gifts. A video is going viral where two men dressed as Santa Claus are being beaten up by hooligans at the Kankaria Carnival in Ahmedabad. This probably is the first year where people dressed as Santa Claus are being hauled up.

We have also seen reports of Christmas carol singers being beaten up and since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power (in 2014) carol singing has been stopped in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Bajrang Dal has also issued warnings to Hindus against their attending Christmas parties. How come these acts at the time of Christmas are seeing a new low currently?

Read Also: Christmas Under Siege: Right-Wing Targets Celebrations Across States

Recently, we also saw claims on ancient mosques that it was a temple so it must be dug up a la Babri Masjid style. Seeing the spate of such ‘made up’ claims, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said, “We should not keep looking for Shivling under every mosque.” It is amazing that even after this a claim has been made, and a dispute created in Kashi (Uttar Pradesh) where a fountain-looking structure is claimed to be a Shivling, with the demand for converting the mosque into a temple. After similar claims in Sambhal (UP), we saw violence recently.

Probably shaken by this and the feeling that the Supreme Leader of the supra political outfit felt it would bring loss of face for the ‘RSS combine’, he (Bhagwat) gave a sane-sounding call. He said, "The Ram Temple was about faith, and Hindus wanted it built. But raising disputes about new sites out of hate is unacceptable," adding that “some people think they can become leaders of Hindus by creating new controversies. How is this allowed?"

Lo and behold! Most of the fringe organisations propagating Hindutva politics are now coming forward to oppose it. One knows that RSS is a disciplinarian organisation, and its members do not violate the commands of its leader. So, who are these senas, dharma sansads etc., that have been springing up by a dozen and are going against Bhagwat’s appeal?

To cap it all, RSS's unofficial mouthpiece, Organiser, itself came forward to articulate the fringe elements’ demands and wrote that “Temple restorations are a quest for our identity!. It also claims that temple restorations are for “our national identity” and to seek “civilisational justice”.

How come the hate is so pervasive that it is even crossing the limits set by its own leaders? Is it that the leaders like Prime Minister Modi want the actions leading to hate to continue, as it strengthens their politics? If not, then why are the perpetrators of hate violence enjoying impunity? Why does the whole system, from spreaders of hate speech to those responsible for maintaining law and order and, to some extent, even the judiciary have a soft corner for these criminal elements?

Having enjoyed the impunity for destroying the Babri Mosque and lynching in the name of cow/beef or killings and torture on alleged ‘love-jihad’, these elements know they can get away with their illegal acts.

The phenomenon of Organiser opposing Bhagwat arouses curiosity. Is there a split within the RSS on the issue? Bhagwat is trying to talk peace and harmony and the managers of Organiser feel that the path of hate and violence should be pursued to its fullest depth.

There is another aspect that needs to be understood. When such phenomena are unleashed for political benefit, initially the leaders congratulate themselves for their success in the electoral arena. From top to bottom, diverse elements spring up and, as Bhagwat said, some of them aim for higher political position and influence. They are the ones continuing their earlier political roots sown by their leaders. One recalls that former top RSS leader K. Sudarshan, who later became RSS chief, was on the stage when the Babri Mosque was being demolished. This is a classic case of crime and no punishment.

All the guilty of the dastardly crime of Babri demolition were finally given a ‘not guilty’ chit, and the judge who did this for the benefit of communal politics, got a plum job after his retirement.

As they say, ‘as you sow, so you reap’, the demolition process of the Babri demolition as a whole tells us that it was not just the spreading of fake narratives of temple destructions, and many myths against Muslims. The result is there for us to see, where even the supreme authority of RSS is not being heeded. The anti-Christian campaign is just a continuation of the decades-old propaganda against Christians that they are converting people by force, fraud and allurement.

The likes of Bhagwat and Modi are witnessing right in front of their eyes that the genie can be unleashed from the bottle, but putting it back is a task that is close to impossible.   

The writer is a human rights activist, who taught at IIT Bombay. The views are personal.