Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh organised marches across Jammu brandishing guns and swords Image: indiatoday.in
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) like any other fascist organisation thrives on a sense of intrigue. It is through a carefully constructed theory of conspiracies that it attempts to legitimise its own rather nefarious agenda. The purpose is to attack (with misinformation, violence and intimidation) and then attempt to turn, in the public mind, the victims into the perpetrators.
The recent case of state repression of the students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) especially its Student Union president, Kanhaiyya Kumar who has been booked for sedition underlines this character of the ideology of the RSS, once again.
A peaceful gathering of a section of students at the campus to protest on the third anniversary of the hanging of Afzal Guru has been falsely depicted as having raised the slogan of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. It is true that some slogans were raised but not in support of Pakistan. Describing this as an act of sedition, Kanhaiyya Kumar was booked and many other students are being investigated.
It is clear by looking at the footage of the meeting that this particular slogan ('Pakistan Zindabad') was in fact raised by the members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidharthi Parishad (ABVP) to enable an easy ‘anti-national’ tag be attached to the meeting. These ABVP members were present there, ostensibly protesting against this meeting that was taking place.
Both the RSS and its offshoots are known to have used such tactics of deceit. These have been well-documented within their own framework, in the documents of the RSS itself.
The central publication house of the RSS, the Suruchi Prakashan, Delhi, published a book in 1997, titled Param Vaibhav Ke Path Par (On the Road to Great Glory) authored by Sadanand Damodar Sapre, a senior RSS functionary. This book contained details of more than 40 organisations created by the RSS for different tasks but more importantly it described how many of these organisations are run in a clandestine manner to promote hidden agendas.
Dr Rajendra Prasad: “I am told that RSS people have a plan of creating trouble. They have got a number of men dressed as Muslims and looking like Muslims who are to create trouble with the Hindus by attacking them and thus inciting the Hindus. Similarly there will be some Hindus among them who will attack Muslims and thus incite Muslims. The result of this kind of trouble amongst the Hindus and Muslims will be to create a conflagration.”
This publication reveals that the whole network runs like a well-organised mafia through its subsidiaries and satellites. There has always been a conscious attempt to create confusion about its various fronts which then provides the RSS with the easy opportunity (option) to dissociate with any of these on occasion, for political convenience.
For instance it used the Hindu Jagaran Manch (HJM) for attacking the Christians in the late 1990s. When, however, public opinion, media and even Parliament seemed to turn against this outfit for obvious reasons, the RSS denied any relationship with the HJM. However, as admitted in this publication, the Hindu Jagaran Manch was created by the RSS itself. To quote:
It is clear that such organisations with no record of membership, no registration and no internal elections are created by the RSS. Such an organisational model provides an opportunity to the RSS to (periodically, when it is politically expedient) disown any individual or organization.
True to its ideological roots and nature, the RSS takes recourse to the theory of conspiracies, often. Read about this disclosure in Param Vaibhav Ke Path Par that relates to a case in Delhi immediately after Partition:
What these Swayamsevaks, impersonating as Muslims, on the eve of Independence were doing was made clear by none other than Dr. Rajendra Prasad who later became first President of the Indian Republic. In a letter to the first Home Minister of India, Sardar Patel, he wrote on March 14, 1948,
The following passage from the autobiography of the first Home Secretary of UP, Rajeshwar Dayal, ICS, clearly shows the sinister and criminal designs of the RSS to organise a pogrom against Muslims in western Uttar Pradesh (the largest province in the Indian Union) and thus break the unity of the country just on the eve of Independence.
Greatly alarmed by those revelations, I immediately took the police party to the Premier’s [chief minister’s] house. There, in a closed room, Jaitley gave a full report of his discovery, backed by all the evidence contained in the steel trunks. Timely raids conducted on the premises of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) had brought the massive conspiracy to light. The whole plot had been concerted under the direction and supervision of the Supremo of the organization himself. Both Jaitley and I pressed for the immediate arrest of the prime accused, Shri Golwalkar, who was still in the area.
Pantji [G. B. Pant] could not but accept the evidence of his eyes and ears and expressed deep concern. But instead of agreeing to the immediate arrest of the ringleader as we had hoped, and as Kidwai would have done, he asked for the matter to be placed for consideration by the Cabinet at its next meeting. It was no doubt a matter of political delicacy as the roots of the RSS had gone deep into the body politic. There were also other political compulsions, as RSS sympathizers, both covert and overt, were to be found in the Congress Party itself and even in the Cabinet. It was no secret that the presiding officer of the Upper House, Atma Govind Kher, was himself an adherent and his sons were openly members of the RSS.
At the Cabinet meeting there was the usual procrastination and much irrelevant talk. The fact that the police had unearthed a conspiracy which would have set the whole province in flames and that the officers concerned deserved warm commendation hardly seemed to figure in the discussion. What ultimately emerged was that a letter should be issued to Shri Golwalkar pointing out the contents and nature of the evidence which had been gathered and demanding an explanation thereof. At my insistence, such a letter if it were to be sent, should be issued by the Premier himself to carry greater weight. Panditji asked me to prepare a draft, which I did in imitation of his own characteristic style. The letter was to be delivered forthwith and two police officers were assigned for the purpose.
Golwalkar, however, had been tipped off and he was nowhere to be found in the area. He was tracked down southwards but he managed to elude the couriers in pursuit. This infructuous chase continued from place to place and weeks passed.
Came January 30, 1948 when the Mahatma, that supreme apostle of peace, fell to a bullet fired by an RSS fanatic. The tragic episode left me sick at heart.”[iv]
It is also well-documented, both in the archives of the Court and other official archives how Hindutva organisations conspired to kill Gandhiji. The conspiratorial modus operandi of the RSS was visible in the demolition of Babri Mosque in 1992 when despite assurances to the government of India and the highest court of justice, the Supreme Court it succeeded in its criminal plan. The Gujarat genocide of 2002 was another instance when it conspired to execute its blood thirsty game.
Now with a government of the RSS, for the RSS and by the RSS, this juggernaut of conspirators, armed with state power, is in full action mode. It can be checked only by a united response from Indians who are committed to a democratic-secular India.