Is India heading for a historical accident? It’s a troubling thought. It upsets me no end and I pray that it should not happen but I dread saying that unfortunately the country is moving in that direction at a rapid pace. If people thought that after the 2024 general elections the BJP would carry out a course correction and would desist from a divisive and communal agenda, then they all were living in a fool’s paradise. The Narendra Modi government that tried to popularise ‘Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas aur Sabka Prayas’ has swiftly moved towards ‘Batenge toh Katenge’, after the elections. Not that I ever believed that ‘Sabka Sath’ was a secular and all-encompassing rhetoric but at least it was not so brazen and there was some moral wrapping. The communal agenda was packaged well in an attractive attire. With ‘Batenga toh Katenge’ that pretence is gone and now it is out in the open, and RSS too has endorsed it. But this is not surprising, as this is their true self. This is a reflection of what Golwalkar said long ago.
Many of my left liberal friends, and also those who are close to RSS, have told me that RSS has changed a lot and it should not be viewed from the old prism; we should not quote from old books of RSS to analyse or assess the RSS of the present. I have always advocated that the success of the RSS lies in its being underestimated by its critics and its friends. It has always used deception techniques to camouflage its real intent and successfully hoodwink its adversaries. Its talk about Hindu Unity is basically the result of its hatred towards Islam. In private many of its leaders and supporters don’t mind saying this and cite historical reasons for what they say and what they believe. It is for this reason that I found it difficult to believe, when a few years back RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said in Delhi that “there can be no Hindutva without Muslims”, that the RSS was changing. A very senior member of the BJP went so far as to say this to me that if Mohan Ji insists on this then he would sit on a dharna. Another member said, “if this is what we are supposed to believe today then why were we told the day we joined RSS, that Muslims are a threat to the country.”
Mohan Bhagwat did not stop with that statement. He went ahead and said “Our DNA is the same.” He meant that DNA of Hindus and Muslims is same. When litigation about the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura gained momentum and courts ordered an enquiry to find out if temple was demolished to construct a mosque, then Bhagwat said “why search for Shivling in every mosque.” In between there was news that he had met with one of the very respected Muslim leaders, Ashraf Madni. This was interpreted as an attempt to tell the Muslim community that RSS did not believe in ‘othering Muslims’ and doesn’t treat Muslims as ‘enemy of the country’. There was every reason to believe if RSS chief was saying this, then it had to be believed; a certain benefit of doubt had to be given. But I was sceptical.
I argued with many friends that RSS was one organisation which functioned on the concept of ‘Ek Chalak Anuvartitva’ that is blindly follow your leader. The RSS chief is virtually a dictator in the organisation, his words are the final words, and anybody who defies him does so at their own peril. What baffled me was that despite Mohan Bhagwat’s supposedly conciliatory approach towards Muslims of India, anti-Muslim rhetoric by leaders of RSS and it subsidiary organisations, did not stop. It was hinted to me that this was possible because Mohan Bhagwat had become too weak, he was reduced to being a titular head, and nobody listened to him because of the spectacular rise of Modi as a Hindutva mascot and his massive popularity within the Hindutva fold. I did not believe this theorisation. I found it a concoction of deception and real politics. Because RSS is not like any other organisation. The RSS chief is called ‘Param Pujyaniya’ in the Hindutva fold, and carries such a moral aura that he cannot be compared with chiefs of other organisations. Even Narendra Modi, despite being the Prime Minister, can’t afford to defy the RSS chief in public. Therefore I was of the opinion that Mohan Bhagwat was deliberately speaking in two tongues, to annul bad press globally and for an image makeover. It was just a good PR exercise. Nothing more nothing less. If he was honest then after his articulation, anti-Muslim rhetoric should have stopped long ago which did not happen.
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RSS’s Hindu Unity project received a serious jolt during 2024 general election. INDIA alliance led by Rahul Gandhi and its focus on caste census, has emerged as a major stumbling block for Hindu Unity. RSS believes that Hindu society could survive for thousands of years due to the caste structure but it is aware that caste is also the reason for division in Hindu society and finds caste-based reservation dangerous for Hindu Unity. But due to the electoral compulsions it does not air its anti-reservation views. In 2015 Bihar Assembly election, Mohan Bhagwat did say that reservation should be reviewed, which became a huge issue and was also the reason for defeat of the BJP. Since then it changed its position on reservation.
RSS is also aware that it cannot afford to be seen publicly opposing the caste census because the issue touches a chord with 80% of the population, and it has become an emotional issue for OBCs and Dalits. No wonder, RSS conceded that caste census should be done for welfare purpose but with a caveat that it should not be done for political reasons. In the general elections, Samajwadi Party experimented with PDA (Acronym of Picchada, Dalit and Alpsankhyak); it worked in UP and the BJP could not win more than 33 seats out of 80. The INDIA alliance narrative that BJP would change the Constitution also worked in this election. Dalits and OBCs were alarmed by the ‘400 Paar’ slogan of the BJP. RSS knows that ‘change the Constitution’ narrative along with caste census and PDA-like experiment has the potential to weaken the Hindu Unity project and the 2024 elections were just a trailer.
RSS had taken a great leap in the direction of Hindu consolidation vis a vis Muslim voters since Modi became the prime minister, and it can’t afford to lose that momentum. ‘Batenge toh Katenge’ has been invented to counter threats of disintegration of BJP’s Hindu vote in particular and attempts to weaken Hindu consolidation in general. RSS knows that up to a large extent it has neutralised the Muslim community but it is facing a new threat from within Hindu society. A large section of OBC and Dalit are not enamoured by the Hindu Unity efforts of RSS. Because they have learnt from the ten-year rule of the BJP at the centre and states that BJP takes their votes but does not give them proper representation in the power structure. They are used as fodder to win elections but real power still lies with the upper caste. This social group had also noticed that systematically, they are marginalised from university system and police and general administration. The upper castes still rule the roost, they dominate every sector of state apparatus despite being less than 20% in population.
In this context, Dattatreya Hosabale endorsing Yogi Adityanath’s slogan of ‘Batenge toh Katenge’ is a desperate act of the RSS which contradicts what was said by Mohan Bhagwat. This is out and out an anti-Muslim formulation. The utterances of BJP leaders like Yogi Adityanath, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Giriraj Singh and others are spreading hatred in society, creating an atmosphere of fear. RSS should remember and never forget what Sardar Patel said in his letter to Golwalkar on September 11, 1948: “RSS did a service to the Hindu society. The objectionable part arose when they (RSS) burning with revenge, began attacking Mussalmans. All their speeches were full of communal poison ... as a final result of that poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of Gandhiji.”
The writer is Co-Founder, SatyaHindi.com, and author of Hindu Rashtra. He tweets at @ashutosh83B
