RSN Singh, a former Army officer and Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) agent no less, has recently made remarks spreading misinformation, even hatred against both Islam and Christianity. A video of his, has surfaced on Facebook on May 9, which has 17,000 likes and over a thousand comments. The fact that he is a former high ranking official in India’s foreign intelligence service makes his remark of significance, illustrative of how even senior functionaries within the services harbour deeply held unconstitutional values.
It is unclear where he has delivered this speech. However, in the speech he goes on about how Muslims in Kashmir valley, about two centuries ago were Hinduised and it was very “transparent” (apparent) how, over the years, they have become very opaque( presumably meaning they have become “less Hindu” in their culture). He also insinuated that ‘Global Jihad’ was brought to India by Mufti Mohammad Saeed, who was once the chief minister of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The suffix-ing of “Jihad to multiple nouns is a phenomenon carefully crafted and propagated since especially 2020 by a band of professional practitioners including electronic media anchors, elected officials of the supremacist right and now, reflected in the utterances of retired intelligence government officials. It is reflective of a sharp majoritarian shift in the tilt and echelons of the Indian state.
While speaking about the Kashmir issue, RSN Singh further said that Kashmir was the ‘head’ of the country and things like ‘tukde tukde’ gang ka ‘nanga naach’ (the dance of the tukde tukde gang) in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), nexus of ‘jihadis’ and ‘’Maoists’ were happening because you have not treated the ‘head’ yet. (Time stamp: 9:10 – 9:20)
He also spoke about someone who took a video of himself eating beef in Kashmir and he deprecated the same questioning how did Kashmir come to this? He further said that Shopian district in Kashmir valley, is the ‘fort of Jihadism’. He said last year 44 ‘jihadis’ were killed there. (time stamp: 19:56 – 20:28). He further said that Hafiz Saeed went to the Bangladesh border and trained Rohingya Muslims and that they were relocated to strategic locations of Kashmir valley like Nagarota, Sujwan. (time stamp: 24:56- 25:55)
Commenting on the phenomenon of suicide bombing he said that Muslims all over the world should ponder over how they used suicide bombing as a mode of attack. He said all Muslims should question this. He said there was no suicide bombing earlier. He questioned how did Kashmir reach this stage of suicide bombing and blamed the “Abdullahs, Muftis, Hurriyat”. (time stamp: 27:18 – 27:36)
In his calculated diatribe, he also said you conducted surgical strikes for Uri, but many “internal surgical strikes are needed” (time stamp: 42:29 – 42:40). Targeting many politicians, lawyers, activists, NGOs, journalists are ‘proxies’ and there should be an internal surgical strike against them (time stamp: 43:00 – 43.12). This is a clear call to violence against sections of Indians.
Elaborating on his slanted view of the past and present, he also said that in every war there is a communal factor. There was a caliphate factor in World War I, in World War II there was a Jewish factor. In 1947 when tribal invasion happened, they were inspired by ‘Jihadism’ (Time stamp: 44:00 – 44:56)
“When there is jihadism then everyone will feed into it, the Maoists, the church, the tukde tukde gang, everyone”, he added. (time stamp: 46: 55- 47:05)
He further added that he differs from the Constitution makers who held the view that the world has seen the last of the religions. “How did they decide this? Can any judge give a certificate that no more religion can come up? We should understand that Hinduism is the oldest religion of the world. If anybody has the right to analyse other religions, it is ours (Hindus). Because we were already there. Others kept coming. They gave rice, converted, and did violence. The religious text that says that the Earth is flat. When your basics (Constituent Assembly, constitution framers) are so wrong then how do we believe and why should we respect you? We should not compare ourselves to the rest of the world.” (47:52 – 50.32)
In the past as well he is known to have created controversy with his provocative comments as a guest speaker on Times Now. In September 2017, he made some controversial remarks about Prophet Mohammad. A report by The Quint said that RSN Singh was described as “incompetent” and a “non-performer” by some senior colleagues who oversaw his work in India’s external intelligence agency. A police complaint was lodged against RSN Singh in September 2017 for his comments and the channel distanced itself from his comments on the show. The complaint was lodged in Aurangabad as reported by The Quint.
Journalist Saba Naqvi had also quoted Singh in her Times of India article of June 25, 2017 stating that “he suggested that Kashmiri youth oppose India as they are the illegitimate offspring of militants from across the border.”