“It’s the day of resurrection…”:

Swami Avdheshanand Giri after Pran Pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya[1]

1.  A Memorial For a Supremo

‘Rajju Bhaiya Sainik Vidya Mandir’ Shikarpur Tehsil, Bulandshahr.

It was October 2020 when a Sainik School for boys was inaugurated in Shikarpur Tehsil of Bulandshahr District.[2] Right from Indresh Kumar, or Ram Lal, to Mahant of Junagarh Avadheshanand Giri, a seer supposed to be close to the proponents of Hindutva, many leading lights of the RSS and its frontal organisations or co-travellers of their ideology attended the high profile function.

The event made headlines for several reasons:

One, it was called the ‘first Sainik School of RSS’.

Two, a whooping sum of Rs 40 crores was supposed to be spent over it – thanks to the largesse extended by the union (Modi) government.

Thirdly, it was one of those rare occasions when RSS had moved beyond its founder member Dr Hedgewar to build memorials. Remember Rajendra Singh alias Rajju Bhaiya (1922-2003) was the first non-Brahmin and non-Maharashtrian Supremo of RSS from 1994-2000.  This Sainik School is located in the same place where he (Raju Bhaiya) was born.

Normally, an idea to start a school is met with jubilation. This one however had the opposite effect.  There were voices of concern raised by educationists, social activists as well as political leaders,

The added concern was that Vidya Bharati, the education wing of the RSS – which already runs 20,000 schools across India – would now also be running this military school although there was a clarification that this Army School will follow the CBSE curriculum and will have classes running from Class 6 to Class 12.

The same Vidya Bharatii (of the RSS’) whose stated mission is  

“To develop a National System of Education which would help building a generation of young men and women that is committed to Hindutva and infused with patriotic fervour”. [3]

Questioning the whooping sum of Rs 40 crores which would be spent over it, Akhilesh Yadav, leader of the Samajwadi {arty (SP) and former Chief Minister of UP, had, at the time, underlined that since we already have enough such institutions “[r]un by the government so where is the need for RSS to run its own army school,”[4]

He did not hide his apprehensions about what curriculum be taught there.

“RSS apparently wanted to serve its political purpose by opening the army school where the students will “probably be taught lessons in mob lynching and disrupting social harmony”.[5]

The concern expressed by many about this project could not be brushed aside easily. It is a different matter that in today’s mediatised world, things move with such a speed that the issue of a RSS run military school , the RBSVM – Rajju Bhaiya Sainik Vidya Mandir – and the attendant furore soon died down. Little did anyone carry the premonition that the founding of RBSVM was just a trailer of what lay in store: asli film abhi baaki thi‘.

2. Sainik Schools for Swayamsevaks??

‘Centre hands over 62% of new Sainik Schools to Sangh Parivar, BJP politicians and allies‘[6]

We were woken up from this momentary slumber by an investigative report published by Reporters Collective a team of dedicated investigative journalists and researchers – which has also been responsible for intrepid investigations on crucial issues that have generated public debate. What is remarkable that their key concern in taking up this work has been the failure of the mainstream media to ‘hold the powerful accountable to citizens.’ This report investigated by Astha Savyasachi was no less thorough and concerning.

What it effectively brought forth was that Sainik Schools like RBSVM – Rajju Bhaiya Sainik Vidya Mandir, are going to be a model for the future under this regime (until it remained in power). Such schools would come up or are coming up in rest of India which would effectively rely on ‘ideologically slanted organisations to train future cadets’ for the military.

The emergence of these new Sainik Schools has been facilitated by formation of an “Sainik Schools Society (SSS), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Defence (MoD), to run Sainik Schools under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model’ and government opening doors for private players to run Sainik Schools in India ( 2021).

What appears rather striking to any neutral observer is that despite the fact that these Sainik Schools were being promoted to facilitate entry of eligible students in the military and other security forces, the only criterion of sorts to set up such a school was one related to infrastructure.

‘[a]s per the approval policy document  infrastructure was the only specified criterion that made a school eligible for approval. ‘Thus any school which had the SSS specified architecture like – land, physical and IT infrastructure, finanical resources and staff etc could apply to become one such school.’ [7]

What is clear in the union government’s “scheme”:

“[e]nabled schools linked with the Sangh Parivar and organisations with similar ideologies to apply.”[8]

To date, 40 schools have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Sainik Schools Society (SSS) and the report further explains that out of which

“According to the RTI responses, at least 40 schools have signed MoUs with the Sainik Schools Society between May 05, 2022 and December 27, 2023. A closer review by The Collective reveals that out of the 40 schools, 11 are directly owned by BJP politicians or managed by trusts chaired by them, or belong to friends and political allies of the BJP. Eight are managed by RSS and its allied organisations directly. Additionally, six schools have close ties to Hindutva organisations or far-right rabble-rousers, and other Hindu religious organisations. None of the approved schools are run by Christian or Muslim organisations or any of the religious minorities of India.”

An idea of the people who are being given permission to run these schools can be had from the names of individuals which the report shares. It would be opportune here to share two such names who are widely known not only for their stature within the larger Parivar network but also for their speeches and actions which have raised concerns at deeper levels.

One of them is run by Mahant Balaknath Yogi, the incumbent BJP MLA from Tijara in Rajasthan.[9]  Anyone who has closely followed the assembly elections in Rajasthan would recall that he is called as ‘Rajasthan ka Yogi‘ by his followers and reports had appeared in a section of the press which had said that if BJP regains power in Rajasthan then he would be in the running to get the top post.

It is a different matter the BJP leadership decided otherwise because of its own considerations.

Apart from Mahant Balaknath Yogi, Sadhvi Rithambhara, called as Didi Ma in the Hindutva circles -happens to be another high profile individual from the Hindutva family.

Founder of Durga Vahini, Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) women’s wing, and a key figure in the Ram temple movement, her fiery speeches during late 80s or early 90s during the mass movement against the five hundred year old mosque had come under scanner for provoking disaffection and discord in the society. Controversial for her speeches leading to the demolition of Babri Masjid in December 1992, historian Tanika Sarkar described Ritambhara and her speeches as “the single most powerful instrument for whipping up anti-Muslim violence.” The Liberhans Commission which probed the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya, accused 68 people including Ritambhara of leading the country “to the brink of communal discord.”[10]

Even more than 30 years after that deplorable period she still remains significant within the Sangh Parivar and close to several BJP leaders. One learns that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had travelled to Vrindavan in December 2023 to wish her on her birthday.

As of now she runs two schools under this PPP scheme one in Vrindavan titled ” Samvid Gurukulam Girls Sainik School” and another, Raj Luxmi Samvid Gurukulam in Solan, Himachal Pradesh. The report also carries a video link – carried on the Facebook page of the school – and also an extract of Sadhvi Rithambhara’s speech where she addresses the students about ‘honour’, traditions and rituals during a personality development camp. She can be seen commenting on how girls are “out of control” in colleges and social media.

It does give one an idea about what sorts of thing would be taught or silenced.

No doubt it does not need profound wisdom to understand the content of education in all these schools. Would it be any different from the sectarian worldview which is taught in other RSS run schools where the mission itself is to build “[a] generation of young men and women that is committed to Hindutva and infused with patriotic fervour”.

3. FOR MILITARY REGENERATION OF HINDUS! REALLY?

Anyone who believes in Indian Constitution and understands the role of Sainik Schools – which prepare students to be made eligible for entry into Defence Services at various levels and manage to send around 25 per cent of its recruits – should feel deeply concerned with this policy of PPP model in founding of Sainik Schools.

There are many reasons which demand that this policy should be finally dumped:

• One, noted educationists have raised serious concerns over running such schools
• Two, defence personnel have similarly raised serious objections to such schools
• Three, Hindutva Supremacist organisations and their affiliates would be key players in running such schools, organisations whose world view does not resonate with the Constitution
• Four, unfortunately we have around 90 year old experience of such Sainik Schools running in our country – since before independence – mainly run by organisations/ individuals close to the Hindutva Supremacists World View and this has not been very encouraging
• Five, the first decade of the 21st century witnessed emergence of what is popularly known as Hindutva terror groups, who were engaged in terror acts within the country. Right from the Nanded Bomb Blast (2006) to the Malegaon Bomb blasts, we have few such examples where fanatic Hindus tried to engage in terror acts.

Courts are still dealing with these cases but prima facie evidence suggests that such fanatics had an initial exposure to radical ideas and even received training at such schools

Let us take up these reservations one by one:

One, it would be opportune here to revisit how a leading educationist – Prof Anita Rampal – shared her reservations when she learnt about the role of RSS in running a military school in Shikarpur. She broadly raised three points while participating in a panel discussion[11]:

• How any such special school goes against our basic demand that till ten years of age

(At least) there should be common school system for all?

• How studies show that all such ‘military schools’ – which are all filled with male students – encourage a ‘macho’ personality among students.
• Close on the heels of the discussions around New Education Policy Draft presented by Kasturirangan Committee, which even talks of role of retired teachers and retired army personnel in education this project looks worrisome.

Two, as we already mentioned it was the year 2021 when the present ruling dispensation had taken a significant step in the direction of setting up of 100 Sainik Schools in partnership with NGOs, private schools etc. What is worth noting that voices of concern and caution and need for ‘further introspection’ were immediately raised by military personnel (retd) and security analysts.

In his exhaustive piece Lt General Prakash Menon had cautioned ‘Don’t rush into Sainik School public-private partnership. It can dilute and corrut’[12] )  He emphasised that ‘The preservation of Sainik School ‘ethos’ cannot be done without the Ministry of Defence being in control.’[13]

His observations were about composition of students who would take up admissions in such schools, absence of any ‘multi-cultural’ character and most of them coming from a restricted pool and a majority of them anchored in narrow worldview:

Private/NGO schools have local students and may not be multi-cultural. The existing boarding schools available for incorporation will be from a restricted pool with most of them being privately administered. The majority of them will be anchored in narrow religious/corporate/family/social/cultural credos, which could run counter to the essential ethos of Sainik Schools acting as a melting pot for limited identities and catalysing the creation of a large Indian national one. This is a major flaw in the proposal and is derived from structural incompatibility of the proposed partnership model.[14]

He was worried also about the nexus developing between the Union and Private parties to promote an ideologically slanted education much removed from values enshrined in the Constitution and also the long-term strategic consequences of some of our future military leaders imbued in Hindutva/cultural nationalism

The potential greater danger is that of a nexus developing between the Union and the private parties to promote an ideologically slanted version of education that is far removed from the values enshrined in the Constitution. Take, for instance, Vidya Bharathi, one of the oldest and largest groups with a national footprint. Its mission is: “To develop a National System of Education which would help building a generation of young men and women that is committed to Hindutva and infused with patriotic fervour”.

Would such an outlook be compatible with the preservation and promotion of the Sainik School spirit? The long-term strategic consequences of some of our future military leaders imbued in Hindutva/cultural nationalism can remain a part of political debate. But from a national security perspective, decision-making on the issue must preserve national interests that are derived from constitutional values. This will require the political leaderships to put the nation ahead of their parties.[15]

Three, the fact that Hindutva Supremacist Organisations would be key players in such schools should definitely become a matter of concern.

Nobody can suddenly develop amnesia over the fact that Hindutva Supremacists organisations – few of which have been active before independence itself – have a controversial past about which they themselves or their ideological descendants have to do lot of explaining. A number of articles have been written about the fact that such formations did not participate in the freedom struggle and in fact, when broad masses of Indian people were united for anti-colonial struggle, by its actions they tried to weaken the unity.[16]

Their leaders had tremendous fascination for the ‘final solution’ offered by Hitler and yearn to implement it here as well.

In fact, when the newly independent nation embarked on having a new constitution for it – based on one man – one vote – which resolved to do away with all the age old privileges based on caste, gender, race, ethnicity etc, it had opposed its making and had even vouched for ‘Manusmriti’ as its Constitution.

Forget the feverish attempts by the present custodians of such organisations to sanitise their own past and package themselves in a more attractive manner, there are going to be genuine questions about what sort of worldview these future soldiers would be taught in schools which would be run under their or their affiliates guidance.[17]

It would be the height of innocence to think that it would not be an exclusivist worldview of the parent organisation which is premised on an ‘us’ and ‘them’ thinking and which has still not deemed it necessary to admit women in its fold, when equality between different sexes is an established idea.

Perhaps, more importantly, such formations have always maintained that military education is important for students citing rising threat to the nation.[18] Of course, there is nothing unique about this fascination for arming people and providing them military education, if one compares it to other exclusivist organisations.

Four, like every exclusivist ideology/organisation/formation which claims to be centred around a particular religion – may it be Islamism, Zionism, fanatic Buddhism – Hindutva has always entertained a dream of preparing/arming its followers to fight the ‘others’ and slowly albeit not so silently moving closer to usher into its dreamland of Hindu Rashtra. Its ideologues/leaders have been candid enough to point out to the faithful’s the ‘internal enemies’’ and ways to deal with them or exterminate them. All these preparations dotted by regular drills, games and other militant exercises serves as a counter to the much publicised notion by the same people that ‘Hindus are Cowards’.[19]  Or the canard that, “Islam was spread through the sword” which has been an item of belief for the Hindutva fundamentalists.

It was in the mid-1930s when a proper military school was established by Dr B S Munje, mentor of Dr Hedgewar and one of the founders of RSS which was aimed “…to bring about military regeneration of the Hindus” Apart from Dr Hedgewar, and Dr B S Munje, Dr L V Paranjpe, Dr B B Thalkar and Baburao Savarkar – V.D. Savarkar’s brother were present at the inaugural meeting of RSS on Vijaya Dashmi.[20] This military school was to be built on the lines of the The Balilla institutions an idea conceived by Mussolini for the ‘military regeneration of Italy’. Anyone can see that from day one its doors were closed for non-Hindus.[21]

In one of the first exhaustive write-up “”Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the 1930s: Archival evidence” in Economic & Political Weekly, January 22, 2000 Marzia Casolari [22] had provided details of Dr Munje’s tour of Italy, his meeting with Mussolini and his impressions of The Balilla institutions an idea conceived by Mussolini for the ‘military regeneration of Italy’ and his resolve to develop similar institution with ‘’our institution Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh”

India and particularly Hindu India need some such institution for the military regeneration of the Hindus: so that the artificial distinction so much emphasised by the British of martial and non-martial classes amongst the Hindus may disappear. Our institution of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh of Nagpur under Dr Hedgewar is of this kind, though quite independently conceived. I will spend the rest of my life in developing and extending this Institution of Dr Hedgewar all throughout the Maharashtra and other province..[23]

It describes how after the death of its founder Munje, merely six weeks after Gandhi’s assassination, it faced a tremendous crisis and it was the role of the RSS activists there which helped it revive.

The Bhonsala Military School was thus revived. But the revival came at a price. With Ghatate acting as Nagpur’s key aide in the whole exercise, the management of Moonje’s school was silently taken over by men belonging to the RSS. “The shift took place during the period between 1953 and 1956,” says Major (Retd.) Prabhakar Balwant Kulkarni—who witnessed the shift and who had been attached to the school in different capacities from 1956 to 2003—in a detailed interview that took place in Nashik. [24]

Five, the project of running a military school under such formations is worrisome also because of earlier experiences which were concretised with the intervention and involvement of Hindutva activists.

e.g. More than a decade back when exposures in the Malegaon bomb blast case were taking place and terror modules belonging to Hindutva formations were under scanner- thanks to the painstaking work done by the then ATS chief Hemant Karkare – an organisation called Maharashtra Military Foundation (MMF) based in Pune run by – Lt Col Jayant Chitale, a retired air defence artillery officer had also made headlines.

In an interview to the ‘Outlook’ reporter[25] Jayant Chitale told him that he had

“Over 1,000 of my boys serving in the three services today. Each one has been brainwashed by me. They are motivated, determined and will do anything for the nation.”

The visitor’s book which Chitale has carefully preserved lists the names of all the young men who were trained under him. Entry on February 20, 1993 tells us that Shrikant Prasad Purohit, Law College, Pune was also enrolled here. The same Purohit, who later became Lt Col in army and was an accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case under various sections of the UAPA and Indian Penal Code with others.

Coming back to the ‘Rajju Bhaiya Sainkik School’ a section of the media is claiming that this is going to be the ‘first Sainik School’ being conceived and run by RSS.  This claim is not based on facts.

Bhonsla Military School (BMS) founded by Munje – leader of Hindu Mahasabha and one of the founders of RSS itself – is a living example that for the last sixty years, RSS or its activists are effectively running the school, which has run into controversy one after the other.

In fact, ‘Shadow Armies’ a book by veteran political journalist Dhirendra K Jha, – which has devoted a full chapter to the Bhonsla Military School – takes a close look at burgeoning of fringe organizations such as the Sri Ram Sene, the Hindu Yuva Vahini, the Sanatan Sanstha and the Hindu Aikya Vedi apart from few affiliated organisations of the RSS itself which according to the author ‘stir up trouble, polarize communities, incite violence in the name of Hindutva.’ It is common knowledge that there is a very symbiotic relationship between the BJP and these ‘Shadow Armies’.  They have accompanied BJP’s steady advance over the last three decades from two Lok Sabha seats in 1984 to 282 in 2014.

The school remained under scanner of security agencies during first decade of 21^st century.

The school, ..has been linked to various attacks by Hindu extremists in the recent past. The Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad, for instance, found during its investigation of the 2008 Malegaon blasts that several of the accused had been trained at BMS. Witnesses and co-accused told the ATS that they had participated in meetings with senior RSS leaders and their affiliates to plan the bombings, and that these had taken place on BMS premises.[26]

Not only in the Malegaon blasts, ATS investigating the Nanded Bomb Blast Case ( 6 April 2006) which had witnessed deaths of two Hindutva activists while making bombs had discovered that the Himanshu, one of the deceased had organised a training camp at the Bhonsala Military School in Nagpur, apart from other camps. The charge sheet and narcotics analysis of accused in the Nanded blast case made it very clear that a training camp was held in the Bhonsala Military School at Nagpur attended by 100 to 115 people in May 2000 from all over the country.[27]

4. In Lieu of a Conclusion

Much has been written on RSS run schools and their pedagogical programme.[28]

A glimpse of the critique can be had from one such study published quite some time back. (Teaching to Hate: RSS’ Pedagogical Programme, Nandini Sundar, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 16 (Apr. 17-23, 2004), pp. 1605-1612 (8 pages) Published By: Economic and Political Weekly, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4414900)

To paraphrase from the above mentioned study, if schools are one of the modes in which nations imagine and reproduce themselves, debates over schooling system are, at heart, debates over style and content of this imagining

Looking at the fact that in today’s India when the RSS and its affiliated organisations and its worldview is on ascendant, and its notion of citizenship, patriotism and nationhood have a wider constituency, it is easy to imagine whether such Sainik Schools being run under PPP model would be seriously inculcating Constitutional Principles and Values among students when the only requirement is that you need to have an infrastructure to run a school?

Definitely not.

Elections are round the corner and whenever a new government takes over, concerned citizens, civil liberty organisations, educationists as well as political formations should impress upon the new government to review this policy and decide to discontinue it.

[1] https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/its-the-day-of-resurrection-swami-avdheshanand-giri-after-pran-pratishtha-ceremony-in-ayodhya20240122225147/

[2] https://www.amarujala.com/delhi-ncr/up-bulandshahr-rajju-bahiya-sainik-school-inaugurated-by-avdheshanand-giri-maharaj?pageId=1

[3] https://theprint.in/opinion/dont-rush-sainik-schools-public-private-partnership-can-dilute-and-corrupt/673499/

[4] https://www.thehansindia.com/news/national/rss-to-open-army-school-in-name-of-rajju-bhaiya-551122

[5] https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/rss-to-open-army-school-dedicated-to-former-chief-rajju-bhaiyya-2078110

[6] https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/centre-hands-sainik-schools-to-sangh-parivar-bjp-politicians

[7] https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/centre-hands-sainik-schools-to-sangh-parivar-bjp-politicians

[8] https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/centre-hands-sainik-schools-to-sangh-parivar-bjp-politicians

[9] . https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/rajasthan-assembly-election-2023-result-who-is-mahant-balak-nath-yogi-all-you-need-to-know-about-bjp-candidate-from-tijara-constituency/articleshow/105693829.cms ; https://hindi.theprint.in/elections/yogi-of-rajasthan-who-is-mahant-balaknath-who-is-in-the-news-with-the-rise-of-bjp-in-rajasthan/635496/

[10] . https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/centre-hands-sainik-schools-to-sangh-parivar-bjp-politicians

[11] .https://khabar.ndtv.com/video/show/prime-time/rss-is-opening-its-military-school-in-bulandshahar-523031

[12] https://theprint.in/opinion/dont-rush-sainik-schools-public-private-partnership-can-dilute-and-corrupt/673499/

[13] https://theprint.in/opinion/dont-rush-sainik-schools-public-private-partnership-can-dilute-and-corrupt/673499/

[14] https://theprint.in/opinion/dont-rush-sainik-schools-public-private-partnership-can-dilute-and-corrupt/673499/

[15] https://theprint.in/opinion/dont-rush-sainik-schools-public-private-partnership-can-dilute-and-corrupt/673499/

[16] https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/bharatiya-janata-partys-ideological-ancestors-supported-british-muslim-league-against-indians-mallikarjun-kharge/cid/2011944 ; https://sabrangindia.in/why-is-the-bjp-calling-the-congress-manifesto-2024-to-be-an-imprint-of-the-muslim-league/

[17] https://www.newsclick.in/many-silences-mohan-bhagwat

[18] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nashik/india-was-better-off-under-british-rule-mohan-bhagwat/articleshow/11984492.cms

[19] https://francoisgautier.me/2013/02/10/are-hindus-cowards

[20] Page 16, Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags, Tapan Basu, Pradip Datta, Sumit Sarkar, Tanika Sarkar, Sambuddha Sen, Orient Longman

[21] https://kafila.online/2012/03/09/75-years-of-bhonsala-military-school-militarising-minds-hindutvaising-the-nation/

[22] http://www.epw.in/journal/2000/04/special-articles/hindutvas-foreign-tie-1930s.html

[23] From Munje Diary, http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/moonje-mussolini/article6756630.ece

[24] https://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/the-rss-bhonsala-military-school-dhirendra-k-jha

[25] ‘Godse’s War, Nov 17, 2008

[26] https://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/the-rss-bhonsala-military-school-dhirendra-k-jha

[27] https://www.countercurrents.org/gatade100312.htm

[28] http://www.sacw.net/HateEducation/Ramak101198.html ; http://scroll.in/article/815049/indianise-nationalise-spiritualise-the-rss-education-project-is-in-for-the-long-haul, https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/ekal-vidyalaya-abhiyan-rss-fts-vhp-hindutva-west-bengal-trinamool-bjp

The post Militarising Minds, Hindutvaising the Nation | Training Future Military Leaders Imbued in Hindutva Supremacism? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

During one of the school events in June last year, the 60-year-old saffron-clad woman gets on the stage to address the students about ‘honour’, traditions and rituals during a personality development camp. In a video, shared on the school’s Facebook page, Ritambhara can be seen commenting on how girls are “out of control” in colleges and social media.

“What do we find in colleges? Girls smoking cigarettes at midnight. In these hubs of education, women are breaking liquor bottles, and spreading indecency with their boyfriends on motorcycles… We had never thought that the daughters of India would be so out of control. They are posting abusive reels on social media. They are doing nude photoshoots. They are showing off their bodies in undergarments. It seems that these women are mentally sick… These girls don’t have sanskar,” says Ritambhara.

Her girls’ school in Vrindavan and another, Raj Luxmi Samvid Gurukulam in Solan, Himachal Pradesh recently joined the list of at least 40 schools that have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Sainik Schools Society (SSS), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Defence (MoD), to run Sainik Schools under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. 

In 2021, the Union government opened doors for private players to run Sainik Schools in India. In their annual budget that year, the government announced plans to set up 100 new Sainik Schools across India.

Any school having SSS specified infrastructure –  land , physical and IT infrastructure, financial resources, staff etc – could potentially be approved as one of the new Sainik Schools. As per the approval policy document, infrastructure was the only specified criterion that made a school eligible for approval. This limitation enabled schools linked with the Sangh Parivar and organisations with similar ideologies to apply.

Collated information from the Union government’s press releases and Right to Information (RTI) replies show a concerning trend. Our findings reveal that of the 40 Sainik School agreements so far, at least 62% were awarded to schools linked to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its allied organisations, politicians of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its political allies and friends, Hindutva organisations, individuals, and other Hindu religious organisations.

While the government expects the new PPP model to bolster the recruitment pool for the armed forces, the initiative that brings in political players and right-wing institutions into the military ecosystem has raised concerns.

In the history of the Sainik School education system, this was the first time the government allowed private players to get affiliated with the SSS, receive “part financial support” and run their branches. On October 12, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led a cabinet meeting that approved a proposal to run the schools “as an exclusive vertical which will be distinct and different from existing Sainik Schools of MoD.”

According to the policy  document,  the government provides, through SSS, “an Annual Fee Support of 50% of fee (subject to an upper limit of Rs.40000/- per annum for 50% of the class strength (subject to an upper limit of 50 students) per year from Class 6 onwards till class 12, on Merit-cum-Means basis,” which means, for a school that has classes till 12th standard, SSS offers to provide support of maximum Rs 1.2 crore per annum. This is given as partial financial support to the students. Other incentives offered to the schools include “an amount of Rs.10 lakhs as training grant given annually based on academic performance of the students in class 12.”

Despite the government support and incentivisation, The Reporters’ Collective found that the annual fee for the senior secondary ranges from a nominal Rs 13,800 a year to as high as Rs 2,47,900, indicating a significant disparity across fee structures of the new Sainik Schools.

Who will run the new Sainik Schools?

Until the new policy, 33 Sainik Schools housing 16,000 cadets existed in the country with SSS acting as its parent body. SSS is an autonomous organisation under the Defence Ministry. Multiple government reports point to the importance of Sainik Schools in sending cadets to defence institutions. The Standing Committees on Defence have often emphasised Sainik Schools’ role in preparing cadets for the National Defence Academy (NDA) and Indian Naval Academy. In one of the most sought-after military entrance exams to join NDA, according to the 2013-14 Standing Committee, nearly 20% of Sainik School students appearing every year for the exam make the cut. According to data submitted in Rajya Sabha earlier this year, over 11 percent of Sainik School cadets joined the armed forces in the last six years. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh credits Sainik Schools for contributing  more than 7,000 officers to the armed forces.

Sainik Schools, along with Royal Indian Military College and the Royal Indian Military Schools, send more than 25-30 percent of the cadets to various training academies of the Indian armed forces.

“In principle, the PPP model is a good idea. But my apprehension is about the kind of organisations which will win these contracts. If the majority of the ownership is in the hands of BJP-related individuals/organisations, then that bias will impact the nature of education imparted. If, like regular Sainik Schools, these students also have to apply for NDA and other entrance exams for armed forces, the kind of education they have received will definitely impact the outlook of the armed forces,” said a retired Major General who didn’t want to be named.

According to the RTI responses, at least 40 schools have signed MoAs with the Sainik Schools Society between May 05, 2022 and December 27, 2023. A closer review by The Collective reveals that out of the 40 schools, 11 are directly owned by BJP politicians or managed by trusts chaired by them, or belong to friends and political allies of the BJP. Eight are managed by RSS and its allied organisations directly. Additionally, six schools have close ties to Hindutva organisations or far-right rabble-rousers, and other Hindu religious organisations. None of the approved schools are run by Christian or Muslim organisations or any of the religious minorities of India.

Sanctioned for party members and friends

From Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh, a large number of these new Sainik Schools either see direct involvement of BJP leaders or are owned by trusts that they head.

Tawang Public School in Arunachal’s border town of Tawang is the sole Sainik School approved in the state. The school is owned by the state chief minister Pema Khandu. Hitendra Tripathi, Ex. Officio Secretary of the school managing committee, who also serves as the school principal, confirmed Khandu’s role as chairman of the school committee. Khandu’s brother Tsering Tashi, a BJP MLA from Tawang, is the managing director of the school.

When asked if the government has favoured their school because of their BJP links, Tripathi said, “I don’t find any truth in that claim because three thorough inspections were carried out by the concerned authorities.” Tashi and Khandu, however, have not responded to our queries.

In Mehsana, Gujarat, Shri Motibhai R. Chaudhary Sagar Sainik School is affiliated with Dudhsagar Dairy, which is chaired by Ashokkumar Bhavsangbhai Chaudhari, a former BJP general secretary for Mehsana. Last year, Home Minister Amit Shah had virtually laid the foundation stone of the school. Another school in Gujarat, Banas Sainik School in Banaskantha, is managed by the Galbabhai Nanjibhai Patel Charitable Trust under Banas Dairy. The organisation is led by BJP MLA from Tharad and the current speaker of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, Shankar Chaudhary.

In Uttar Pradesh, Shakuntlam International School in Etawah is run by Munna Smriti Sansthan, a non-profit chaired by BJP MLA Sarita Bhadauria. Her son, Ashish Bhadauria, who oversees the functioning of the school said, “We don’t have any experience in running Sainik Schools. We will be starting it from the coming session.” He claimed, “The selection process was very extensive.” When asked whether their application was favoured for party association, he said, “You should ask this from the government.”

The investigation found many of the people benefiting from this new PPP model include several BJP politicians. This long list has BJP leaders from different states.

In Haryana, Shri Baba Mastnath Residential Public School of Rohtak is now a Sainik school. Former BJP MP Mahant Chandnath founded it and is currently run by his successor Mahant Balaknath Yogi, the incumbent BJP MLA from Tijara in Rajasthan.

Maharashtra’s newly approved schools include Ahmednagar’s Padmashree Dr Vithalrao Vikhe Patil School — an institution chaired by former Congress MLA Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil who joined BJP in 2019. Former Sikar district BJP president in Rajasthan, Hariram Ranwa is the chairperson of the trust that manages the Bhartiya Public School. SK International School in Sangli, which got Sainik School affiliation, was founded by Sadabhau Khot, a BJP ally who was a minister in the 2014 Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government. In Katni, Madhya Pradesh, Syna International School which received approval is headed by Nidhi Pathak, wife of the BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh, Sanjay Pathak.

Some of the above-mentioned schools are existing schools which have received approval to become Sainik schools. Sainik schools, like many other government-run schools in the country, primarily follow the Central Board of Secondary Education curriculum with a few additional subjects, such as moral values, patriotism, communal harmony, and personality development, among others.

A school run by a foundation under the Adani Group, which is close to BJP, was also given affiliation.

Adani World School, in Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, was also affiliated. The school is located near the Krishnapatnam port, a deep water port operated by the Adani Group on the eastern coast. The school is owned by the Adani Community Empowerment Foundation. Priti Adani, chairperson of the foundation hasn’t replied to our queries.

Saffronising Sainik Schools

The list of approvals didn’t just include BJP leaders, the mandate to run private Sainik Schools was handed out to RSS institutions and several Hindu right-wing groups linked with it. Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan (Vidya Bharati) is the educational wing of RSS. Seven such affiliations went to already existing Vidya Bharati schools across India — three of them are located in Bihar, and one each in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Bhausahab Bhuskute Smriti Lok Nyas, an affiliate of Rashtriya Sewa Bharti, the social service wing of RSS, is also part of the cohort running the schools. Their school in Hosangabad, Saraswati Gramoday Higher Secondary School, received approval.

Often accused of rewriting history, indoctrination and anti-Muslim curriculum, Vidya Bharati is upfront about how they define their mission. RSS established Vidya Bharati in 1978 to administer the growing number of schools under it. At present it has 12,065 formal schools under it, with 3,158,658 students, making it probably one of the largest network of private schools in India. They, as mentioned on their website, want to “build a younger generation which is committed to Hindutva and infused with patriotic fervour.”

The new policy changes have raised concerns involving ideologically skewed private players running Sainik Schools. “It is obvious, ‘catch them young’ is the concept. Not good for the armed forces,” said former Lt General Prakash Menon, agreeing that awarding contracts to such organisations will impact the character and ethos of the armed forces. Menon is currently the director of the Strategic Studies Programme at The Takshashila Institution.

In an article, Menon highlighted the potential danger “of a nexus developing between the Union and the private parties to promote an ideologically slanted version of education that is far removed from the values enshrined in the Constitution.”

Aditya Mukherjee, coauthor of the book RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: The Hindu Communal Project, found it shocking that such schools received sponsorship and official support from the Defence Ministry.   “In a democracy, Vidya Bharati kind of schools shouldn’t even exist because of the hatred they have been spreading against minorities. But at least they were only RSS schools. By affiliating them to national institutions, particularly defence, the government is bringing unspeakable danger to the country. This is bound to infect the defence forces with a majoritarian, communal outlook,” Mukherjee told The Collective.

In an interview with The Collective, Avneesh Bhatnagar, general secretary of Vidya Bharati central executive committee, said, “We don’t manage these applications centrally. Each school applies on an individual level. The school committee would know if they were favoured. I cannot answer that.”

However, D. Ramkrishan Rao, president of Vidya Bharati central executive committee, talked about plans to apply for more such affiliations, “For now, we just tried with a few schools. But, we are planning on getting more Vidya Bharati schools to apply and get affiliated to SSS, said Rao.

Bhonsala Military School, Nagpur, run by the Central Hindu Military Education Society, was also approved to be run as a Sainik School. The school was established in 1937 by Hindu right-wing ideologue B.S. Moonje. During the probes into the 2006 Nanded Bomb Blast and 2008 Malegaon blasts, the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad investigated the Bhonsala Military School where the blast accused were reportedly trained.

Just like BMS, several other Hindu religious trusts, some of them founded by Hindutva rabble-rousers, have received approvals to run Sainik Schools in their existing set-up. This includes Hindutva leader Sadhvi Ritambhara’s two schools mentioned above.

Infamous for her speeches leading to the demolition of Babri Masjid in December 1992, historian Tanika Sarkar described Ritambhara and her speeches as “the single most powerful instrument for whipping up anti-Muslim violence.” The Liberhan Commission which probed the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya, accused 68 people including Ritambhara of leading the country “to the brink of communal discord.”

She remains significant within the Sangh Parivar and close to several BJP leaders. Union Home Minister Amit Shah travelled to Vrindavan in December 2023 to wish her on her birthday. In January, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated an all-girls Samvid Gurukulam Girls Sainik School. During the ceremony, Singh commended Ritambhara for her pivotal role in the Ram temple movement. “Didi Ma [Ritambhara] made a significant contribution during the Ram temple movement. She has considered society as her family,” Singh was quoted by the news agency Press Trust of India.

Smt. Kesari Devi Lohia Jairam Public School in Kurukshetra, Haryana is owned by the National Vice President of Bharat Sadhu Samaj (BSS), a society of Hindu ascetics. Shri. Brahmanand Vidya Mandir Gujarat’s Junagadh, which too got the Sainik School affiliation, is run by Bhagvatinandji Education Trust, whose managing trustee — Muktanand ‘Bapu’ — has also been the President of Bharat Sadhu Samaj (BSS) since 2019.

Sree Sarada Vidyalaya, Ernakulam, Kerala is run by a Hindu religious organisation Adi Sankara Trust, a unit of Sringeri Sharada Peetham — a Sanatan Hindu mutt — believed to be set up by 8th century Hindu philosopher and scholar Adi Shankara.

The Collective sent detailed queries to the Defence Ministry and the Sainik Schools Society. We are yet to receive a response from either despite reminders. Requests to arrange a meeting with the founder of Param Shakti Peeth, Sadhvi Ritambhara and its general secretary, Sanjay Gupta, also went unanswered.

Courtesy: https://www.reporters-collective.in

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