The dual attack by a section, relatively entitled in the rigid caste hierarchy, is also echoed by the most rigid and influential sections of the ‘sangh’ pantheon, especially the RSS
While on one side the country was celebrating the reading down of Sec 377, North India was in the grips of a Bharat Bandh announced by 35 upper caste groups and organisations on September 6.
A trend of hostility has been observed over the years among upper caste people against the Amendments to the SC/ST Act.
34 companies of security forces and 5,000 security personnel have been deployed in 35 districts of Madhya Pradesh. Section 144 (Unlawful assembly) has also imposed in several districts according to ANI reports.
“Our demand is that everyone be treated equal. All those from SC/ST communities who have high positions in IAS and IPS due to reservation, all this must be stopped. we are with the Savarnas, that’s why we have closed shops, shut down trade for a day,” said a protester in Madhya Pradesh’s Narsinghpur in a report.
Anti-reservation rhetoric
The protest is against the Parliament passing an amendment to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act that overrode a Supreme Court order diluting it. They are demanding the rollback on reservation and the checks introduced by the apex court be re-introduced.
Due to the widespread Dalit protests against the SC order, the Modi led govt passed an amendment bill in parliament as ‘appeasement’ causing a crack in the upper caste vote bank that has long been stoking the anti-reservation agenda.
Appropriating Babasaheb’s legacy for vote bank politics
The BJP, RSS, VHP nexus has tried very hard to appropriate BR Ambedkar’s legacy and fashion him as a Hindu icon and Ram Bhakt but the recent news is ringing every alarm bell of impending danger. Amitabh Bachchan hosted KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati?) recently asked a question highlighting BR Ambedkar’s middle name. Since April, The Yogi Adityanath-led UP govt has decided to introduce Ambedkar’s middle name ‘Ramji’ in all references to him in Uttar Pradesh’s official correspondence and records.
The increasing hatred for the constitution
Using optics to further a political agenda and appropriating Babasaheb’s legacy is not new. What’s new is stoking the anti-reservation sentiment among upper castes and encouraging fringe groups to burn the constitution.
Deepak Gaur of Aarakshan Virodhi Party (AVP) and Abhishek Shukla of Youth Equality Foundation were accused of burning the Constitution in New Delhi recently as a protest against the SC/ST reservation. Even though they do not seem related to the broader RSS propaganda, the culture that has given rise to such unconstitutional acts is eerily similar in both.
Ending caste-based reservations has been RSS’ agenda ever since it was introduced in the constitution. Their chosen weapon of choice is to speak a lie a thousand times to make it the truth. Many RSS and VHP leaders have commented that Ambedkar only wanted the reservation system to exist for 10 years and have managed to make it widely popular.
“RSS sees the Indian Constitution as a roadblock for establishing Hindu Rashtra. For a long time, RSS and other right-wing groups have been peddling lies that Dr B.R. Ambedkar wanted Reservations for the SC/STs to be discontinued 10 years from the inception of the Constitution,” said PG Ambedkar in an article by NewsClick.
“The Sangh Parivar, a strong believer of the Manu’s (a)dharma code, does not believe in the empowerment of the lower castes and women. It sees the Indian Constitution, with its progressive provisions, as a roadblock for establishing the Hindu Rashtra. The RSS leaders have been making statements on the need to ‘revisit reservations’ or end it. Manmohan Vaidya, at the Jaipur Literary Festival, recently said that caste-based reservations should go. Prior to that, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat made a similar statement just before the Bihar Assembly elections,” he said.
Voices against reservation
The hatred has been deepening even before the LS polls of 2014 where BJP came to power.
“The hurried step of 4.5 per cent quota to Muslims in the 27 per cent OBC reservation by the central government was contrary to the constitution and was taken with an aim to destroy the democratic rights of the majority,” VHP executive president Praveen Togadia alleged in a report from 2012 before launching a nation-wide agitation. He also advocated the use of violence for cow protection before being ousted.
VHP supported RSS’ Mohan Bhagwat’s call to review the reservation policy in 2015. “Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) asked the Centre to set up a judicial commission to find out if the beneficiary castes needed it anymore,” reported Economic Times. “Pushing for the review of the quota system, VHP joint general secretary Surendra Jain said what Bhagwat suggested was nothing new as even the makers of Constitution had envisaged a review of reservation after 10 years. “It is high time to find out whether the castes for whom reservation was provided have benefitted from it. It also needed to be found out that whether the castes receiving benefits of reservation need it in future,” he said in the report.
“In remarks reminiscent of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement on the need to review the reservation policy, just ahead of the 2015 Bihar assembly polls, Sangh publicity head Manmohan Vaidya Friday quoted B R Ambedkar to underline that “it’s not good to have reservation forever” and “the need for it should be done away with as soon as possible” to “provide everyone with equal opportunity”. Speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Vaidya also said that providing reservation to communities other than SCs and STs “seems a little like encouraging separatism,” reported Indian Express in 2017.
“The Indian Constitution provides for reservation to SC, ST and OBC. Since 1981, (when the) RSS had passed a resolution… there was a controversy back then about reservation and the RSS pratinidhi sabha had passed a resolution that for the categories mentioned in the Constitution, SC, ST and OBC… efforts should be made to implement it fully. Sangh has always maintained it,” he said in the report.
“Earlier, during the discussion, Vaidya said caste-based reservation in the context of SCs and STs was meant to address historical discrimination perpetrated by “us”. The subject of reservation came to India in the context of SC/ST… for centuries, we denied the brothers of our community respect and benefits… this was wrong… it is our responsibility to correct this… they were kept away from these things for being born in a particular caste… this is not correct… therefore, the provision of reservation was included in the Constitution since the beginning to take them along. Dr Ambedkar has said, in any nation, it’s not good to have reservation forever. The need for it should be done away with as soon as possible and instead a time should come to provide everyone with equal opportunity… that’s the service of reservation. In other cases, efforts should be made to provide greater opportunities, more education to everyone instead of reservation… beyond this, providing reservation seems a little like encouraging separatism,” he said in the report.
“(Article 335) allows governments to provide reservations for the SC/STs in employment and other posts, related to state governance. If Dr. Ambedkar intended to end reservations in services, he would have incorporated a relevant clause. He believed that there should be proportional representation in matters of services and education. He says that “The question of entry into the Public Service is an important question for all minority communities. But to the Scheduled Castes it is a vital question, a question of life and death. There are many reasons why this must be so. In the first place, it is a question of opening up a career for young men[/women] from the Scheduled Castes. This is an aspect of the question which the Scheduled Castes, and even the Government of India, cannot ignore,” said PG Ambedkar in the earlier mentioned report.
“Ambedkar, for whom representation of Dalits in services was a matter of life and death would not have been so casual about the issue as the conservatives/RSS want us to believe,” he said.
He added that Ambedkar set the 10-year limitation for legislative roles. “Babasaheb Ambedkar definitely talked about a set time period for reserved seats in legislative assemblies and the parliament. He introduces the article 295A in the Constituent Assembly: “… [R]reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes either in House of the People or in the Legislative Assembly shall cease to have an effect on the expiration of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution. This is also in accordance with the decision of the House.” Thus, it is clear that Ambedkar said a limitation of “ten years” should be imposed upon reservations on legislative positions,” he wrote.
Dream to replace the Indian constitution with their own and subverting its history
The BJP, RSS, VHP factions have been twisting this history and setting a dangerous precedent. Many have tried to change how masses perceive the current constitution.
“Replacing the secular Constitution by a new Constitution is an integral part of the Hindutva project of turning India into a Hindu rashtra. The RSS had been nursing this ambition almost since its birth, but was able to muster enough courage to put its desire in the public domain only after the demolition of the Babri mosque on December 6, 1992. Less than three weeks later, on December 25, 1992 Swami Muktanand Saraswati and Swami Vamdev Maharaj held a joint press conference at the office of the Vishwa Samvad Kendra (that also happened to be a BJP member of parliament’s flat). They released a booklet that was a veritable ‘white paper’ of the Hindutva brigade, denouncing the Constitution as “anti-Hindu” and putting forward a prototype of the kind of Constitution it desired for the country. Its pink front cover posed two questions: “Who is the destroyer of Bharat’s unity, integrity, brotherhood and community amity? Who has increased starvation, unemployment, corruption and irreligion?” wrote journalist Kuldeep Kumar.
“The answer was also provided on the cover: “Vartman Indian Sanvidhan” (present Indian Constitution). The word Indian was deliberately used along with two Hindi words to convey the foreign roots of our Constitution. This manifesto was published by the Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti, Vrindavan along with the Sarvoday Satsang Ashram, Haridwar. Swami Hiranand wrote the manifesto’s preface, declaring: “The present Constitution is against our country’s culture, character, circumstances, soil and climate. It looks towards foreign countries and should be completely discarded”. He added that “the conspiracy to convert Bharat into India continues,” he wrote.
“The manifesto or ‘white paper’ put forth its demand very frankly while, in the typical RSS fashion, hawking a fictional story as historical fact. It claimed that when the draft of independent India’s Constitution was sent to Constituent Assembly president Rajendra Prasad, he refused to sign it because he was dissatisfied with it. However, he relented when Jawaharalal Nehru assured him that it would soon be changed and should be accepted for the time being to facilitate the transfer of power from the British. The booklet went on to say that on August 15, 1947, Hindustan was divided into several countries like Pakistan, Brahmadev (Burma), Sri Lanka and India. The present Constitution pertained only to that region of Hindustan, which is currently known as “India”. It clearly said that Muslims and Christians should enjoy no rights, Vande Mataram must replace Jana Gana Mana, the Ashok Chakra must be removed from the tricolour, no reservation should be given to any caste including scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and grants and facilities for Anglo-Indians must be abolished,” he wrote.
“In January 1993, top RSS leader Rajendra Singh wrote in an article in Indian Express that India’s was “not a composite culture” and “in a very fundamental sense, this country has a unique cultural oneness”. Therefore, he concluded: “A Constitution more suited to the ethos and genius of this country should be adopted in the future”. Ten days later, then BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi reiterated the demand for a fresh look at the Constitution. When the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government came to power at the Centre, it appointed a commission to review the Constitution,” he added.
RSS fights with the constitution of India doesn’t end there. The members will go to any lengths to subvert history. They even claimed that Babasaheb did not write the constitution. “In an interview with Outlook, Ram Bahadur Rai, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) chairman, senior Hindi journalist and lifelong RSS worker who served as Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s (ABVP) organising secretary in the early 1970s, has made a startling claim. According to him, it’s a myth that B.R. Ambedkar framed the country’s Constitution. In fact, it was B.N. Rau who did the actual drafting, while Ambedkar corrected the language. “B.R. Ambedkar’s role was limited,” said Rai, “so that whatever material B.N. Rau gave him, he would correct its language. It was like RAW or IB, where foot soldiers write reports in broken English and IPS officers turn it into good English, capable of being presented to the PM. So, Ambedkar did not write the Constitution,” a report said about the 2016 interview.
KN Govindacharya claimed that RSS will rewrite the Indian constitution. “In the 1990s, he was the parivar’s celebrated ideologue who, in collaboration with mentor Lal Krishna Advani, shaped the BJP’s twin strategies of Ram mandir and social engineering,” his introduction read in an interview by The Wire, where he claimed that they will rewrite the constitution to reflect ‘Bhartiyata’.
Burning of the constitution by the likes of Youth Equality Foundation and Anti-reservation party might seem like an isolated incident, but in hindsight are a product of carefully manufactured victimhood. Thereby creating the need to rebel and overthrow the imagined oppressors.
What happens when the Constitution itself is seen as anti-national?
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