The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has organized a three-day conclave at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi to explain its raison d'être to various sections of society. This is part of a larger program to mark the centenary of the RSS’s founding in 1925.
During his address to the delegates on Tuesday, the organisation’s chief, Mohan Bhagwat, repeated some of his core ideas that he has aired numerous times in the past: ‘Every Indian is a Hindu’, ‘All Indians have the same DNA going back 40,000 years’, ‘Being a Hindu emphasizes acceptance of diversity’, etc.
Far from being a proud assertion of its founding ideology, the statements of the RSS chief have, for the umpteenth time, showed how ideologically weak the organization has become under the leadership of its current leader.
Despite politically being stronger than ever, the RSS’s chief’s regular pronouncements suggest a deep-seated inferiority complex and a craven yearning for the approval of those who regard the Sangh as an embodiment of evil.
This is not the first time that the Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi has witnessed the RSS chief attempting to impress a diverse set of people with his muddled description what the Sangh stands for. In 2018, too, a three-day event was organized with Bhagwat addressing a large number of delegates, drawn from all walks of society, to explain what his organization is all about. These same core beliefs of the current RSS chief were proffered at that time too.
These ideas have since been repeated ad nauseum by Bhagwat since then, without any success in lessening the hostility of the ‘intellectuals’ of this country.
So, why does an organisation, which has been in existence for 100 years, and is more powerful today than ever before, desperately trying to please its haters?
Is it because there has never been a more pusillanimous RSS chief in the history of the Sangh?
One should ask Mr. Bhagwat what does he seek to achieve with his ‘All Indians are Hindus’ dogma. It is not an original idea. Even Lal Krishna Advani had aired such views in the past. But whom is he trying to convince?
And if, indeed, all Indians are Hindus, including Muslims and Christians, does it mean that conversion isn’t a problem? After all, if all Indians are Hindus, regardless of their religion, then the conversion of the entire Indian population to Islam shouldn’t be a problem, right? Since they will still be ‘Hindus’.
Also, the RSS chief loves this ’40,000-year-old DNA’ theory. He really needs to point out which historical and genetic study this time period is derived from. What suddenly changed 40,000 years ago that from then onwards, the DNA of all ‘Akhand Bharatwasis’ became one?
And if DNA is the greatest marker of national identity, what about the Ahoms of Assam, who arrived in India in the 13th century? They came from a different ethnic and racial background, so should we expel Assam from the Indian Union?
What about all those people who came from faraway lands and embraced Indian culture, the likes of Sister Nivedita and thousands of Krishna devotees of ISKCON? Are they to be externed from India for having ‘European DNA’?
By the way, what do the Muslims of Pakistan think of this assertion of the RSS chief? As per him, they are also ‘Hindus’ because of their DNA. So, should we hand over Kashmir and other contested territories to them since, by that logic, those lands will still be part of a ‘Hindu Akhand Bharat’?
Never in its history has the RSS been this strong, yet never has it been this spineless. Far from asking its trenchant critics to take a hike, it is constantly trying to earn crumbs of applause from them. The problem may not be institutional, but of an individual, that being the man at the top.
So, while the average swayamsevak is working hard to defend Hindus from conversion gangs in rural India, the RSS chief is negating their work by stating that the ‘Hindu’ identity remains unscathed from conversion.
At the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the RSS chief gave an astonishing address. Instead of talking about the monumental achievement of Indian civilization in regaining one of its most sacred shrines, and the Sangh’s role in it, he started by positioning himself as a moderating influence on the crowd. Then, he went on to preach tolerance and diversity, as if this was one of the ‘Sarva Dharma sambhava’ events.
From a theological point of view, the Sarsanghchalak has no locus standi to state what defines a Hindu and what are the essential qualities of one. His organisation was formed to safeguard Hindu interests at a time when the Congress, under Mohandas Gandhi, was going to extreme lengths to please Muslims. Now, the RSS chief has taken it upon himself to be today’s Gandhi.