In the recently concluded Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at Nagpur, Dattatreya Hosabale, its general secretary, has denigrated the ongoing farmers’ protests in Punjab and Haryana by terming them as “anti-national.” A favourite term of this regime to denigrate and criminalise any dissent against the policies of the RSS-BJP government, this slur against Indian farmers is not new. Such offensive terms were used even in 2020-2021 when the vibrant farmers’ protest shook India.
According to media reports, Hosabale, the second-in-command of the RSS, in his official general secretary’s report, has placed on record the fact that “disruptive forces” are behind the farm protests. Hosabale also added that there are well orchestrated plans to spread “separatist terrorism” in Punjab under the guise of the farmers’ movement, states the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) in a press statement released today. This canard spread by the betrayers of the freedom struggle is out of vengeance against the incessant SKM-led united movement of farmers which has forced the Narendra Modi-led BJP Government to withdraw the pro-corporate Farm Acts. AIKS condemns this sinister move of the RSS which has often been indicted for its anti-national role in communal riots and pogroms, adds AIKS.
AIKS is of the firm opinion that the audacity demonstrated by Hosabale to demonise the farmers’ movement in general and the Punjab movement in particular is a “loyal continuum of the RSS’ trajectory of collaborating with British imperialism and denigrating the greatest anti-imperialist martyrs like Bhagat Singh.” The AIKS statement recalls that historically at the time when the “entire country was on the streets condemning the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, the RSS and other Hindutva outfits were busy denouncing them.” The RSS which couldn’t produce a single freedom fighter worth the name opted to belittle the immense sacrifices of these revolutionaries as “failure”, as clearly demonstrated in Golwalkar’s “Bunch of Thoughts”.
Notably, the RSS has used the term “disruptive forces” to characterise the patriotic farmers of Punjab and Haryana who are fighting against the corporatisation of the agriculture. The AIKS states however that, “the reality is that it is Hindutva terrorism that is acting as the most disruptive internal threat to the unity and diversity of the country. Hindutva fascistic politics is closely aligned with international finance capital and big business which is threatening Indian farmers. RSS should not forget its history of collusion with the imperialist forces and with imperialist agencies like the CIA.”
“CIA Agent J A Curran, who enjoyed unusual access to the top brass of RSS from 1949 to 1951, in his book had identified RSS as a tool that would help the imperialist block led by the USA to contain the militant peasant and workers’ movement in independent India. By demonising the farmers’ movement against corporatisation, RSS is showing its support for imperialist forces in their project to devour Indian agriculture.”
The AIKS has meanwhile also stated that in many of post independent India’s judicial inquiry commission reports “have identified the nefarious role of the RSS in inciting communal riots. This very reason had led to its ban in 1948 after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination and in 1992 after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The role played by the Sangh Parivar functionaries in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom as well as in the 2002 Gujarat genocide are well documented. AIKS calls upon all patriotic forces to isolate and expose fascistic elements led by the RSS who are spreading canards against the farmers’ movement.”
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