By Ratan Sharda

RSS, as an organisation has stood upto all kinds of persecution through democratic means since its first brush with government persecution with murder of Mahatma Gandhi to current times. It is again being targeted and efforts are being made to somehow link it to terrorism.

IT is amazing that not much is known about Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in spite of one of the oldest mass Indian organisation, being around for 85 years and widely accepted as the largest NGO in the world. People only have half baked information about it. Here are some extracts form the book:-

The Ultimate Secret
……RSS, like most successful social or cultural movements, is ignited purely with fire emanating straight from the heart—heartfelt pain and compassion for the society and a burning desire to do something to improve it. The aura of patriotism and burning desire for nation building is all enveloping through its various activities and programmes.

……The spirit of sacrifice that RSS invokes in its members translates in such simple acts that one doesn’t even note it. What value would you attach to an RSS worker Bhaurao Belvalkar’s sacrifice who went as a teacher to the annual month long Sangh Shiksha Varg without a single break for 36 years, foregoing his summer holidays and simple pleasures of family life?

Secretiveness of RSS and Media
I had noted in the beginning of the book that the exercise of writing this book began with a news story that talked of secretiveness of RSS. I am sure, by now, any unbiased reader would have realised that there is nothing secret about RSS’s working and its organisation. It is more a problem of lack of familiarity with the idiom and language that RSS uses, which is different from the ones established by the dominant intellectual elite and media. It is also a problem to understand an organisation which doesn’t work on established norms of a typical Indian social organisation, its non-interest in publicising itself or its work.

In the first year after his appointment, a well known scholar asked Guruji during his Bombay tour in 1941, “Are you opposed to publishing literature about Sangh? Why don’t you create various kinds of literature to spread Sangh ideology?” Guruji’s response was, “I hope that a great scholar like you would be well aware of the tradition of this country. We give more importance to spoken word— ‘shruti’. As long as one can manage with the spoken word, one should work through this system only.

…….This RSS phobia and anti-Hindu sentiment has gone to such ridiculous length that Arjun Singh’s friend Digvijay Singh, the humanist member of Congress who still supports theory of false police encounter in Batla House case in Delhi, or commiserates with terrorists’ families, is alarmed that students educated in RSS run schools are entering portals of Indian Administrative Services. He is worried about incursion of nationalist philosophy but not about amoral education being imparted by our schools that throw up rootless educated youth with no idea about ancient Indian culture and spiritual wealth! And press laps all this up happily without questioning his honestly towards his own party, government and police force. It is not at all embarrassed at such phobic and intellectually corrupt politicians corrupting Indian social arena totally. The same press which has gone to town today when Arjun Singh is down and out about Union Carbide story was totally asleep when the incident actually happened. It didn’t follow such a shameful story. Probably, Arjun Singh could gain their ‘empathy’ and persuade them to kill such stories with his well know tricks of the trade at that time. The fact that a person like Anderson could not have escaped without complicity of the Centre is being handled very ‘sensitively’ by media so that ‘fair name’ of Rajiv Gandhi is not besmirched. The Union Carbide tragedy has been reduced to Anderson’s escape and all other worst aspects of government’s apathy, negotiating most pitiable and embarrassing settlement in financial terms, misuse of funds etc. have all been forgotten in this most shameful episode in post Independence history.

However, inspite of the examples I have cited above, I feel that for this state of affairs, RSS has to blame itself to some extent. Since it is an abiding part of mental makeup of the RSS workers based on the founder’s directive to keep away from publicity and propaganda and work silently, it is difficult to break away from this method of working. I think, this idea has been stretched too far, for too long. There is a sense of negativity about media in RSS establishment for the reasons noted above. On the other hand, media is more responsible for such a negativity and lack of interest in it, not RSS. For RSS, media is unnecessary waste of time, or at the best, a necessary evil. It has, not so far, looked at it as a crucial tool to disseminate its views and ideology; as something that is a must in today’s battle for the minds. I hope the positive nationwide impact that Mohanrao Bhagwat’s statement immediately after Allahabad High Court judgment created and the way media carried it for days will convince RSS media managers (if there are any) that media can respond positively if handled well and given due weightage in its public relations exercise inspite of carrying a secular chip on its shoulders.

Hindus, RSS and Saffron Terror
Last few months have been vitiated by secular lobby ably supported by Congress-UPA government to implicate Hindus and RSS as terrorists to please its vote bank. The duplicity of this lobby vis a vis Sangh and Hindus is exposed very well by the coverage of a news of manhandling of Mirwaiz Farooq in Chandigarh by Kashmiri Hindus and supposedly VHP workers on 25th November. TV news channels, especially Headlines Today went overboard in describing this incident as growing intolerance of Indians (read Hindus) that is ‘hallmark’ of Indian society. Now, imagine a Hindu missionary espousing some Hindu cause against some alleged Muslim atrocities and Muslim youth had attacked him, what would be the reaction? I am sure, it would be – Hindu seer (or whosoever) had provoked Muslim youth who felt aggrieved about ‘xyz’ cause, it could be any ‘cause’.

Worthy commentators forgot that nearly 4 lac Hindus have been thrown out of Kashmir by ‘tolerant’ Muslim leaders in the name of ‘liberal’ Kashmiriyat as they were inimical to their goal of separatists. And after more than two decades, if a few Kashmiri youth feel anger at about their fate – being refugees in their own country, of living in pitiable conditions for years with no promise of return to their homeland, without any rights or privileges that any Indian enjoys and more so a Kashmiri (read Muslim) citizen; our intellectual leadership is horrified. They are not surprised that not a single Hindu Kashmiri has really turned terrorist inspite of years of persecution. Do they wish in their hearts that they should also turn terrorist so both sides look evenly balanced and ‘poor Kashmiris’ who threw out their own flesh and blood are not shown in poor light?

Coverage or lack of it about blockade in Manipur for weeks leading to untold hardships can be attributed simply to the fact that sufferers are local tribes while perpetrators are extremists and terrorists belonging to Christian groups supported in most of the cases by local Church. There is no outrage in chatteratti and self-appointed opinion leaders, or in media.

I have quoted elsewhere from Francois Gautier and Koenrad Elst etc. that Hindu community on the receiving end for centuries having lost millions of its members to hordes of violent marauders culminating in Partition of its mother country has not reacted with any extreme actions except when provoked through riots. They have not tried to set the wrongs right through extremist terror whether it is North East, or Kashmir or any other part of India facing terror attacks for more than a decade now (Infact, much longer in North East). We remember 26/11 but our memories are short; more horrendous acts have taken place for years. If after so much of provocation, only a handful of Hindus have been allegedly found to have taken to the path of violence, it only underlines the non-violent nature of Hindus due to their cultural ethos. Instead of appreciating this tolerance, Hindus are being labeled ‘saffron terrorists’ with only a few shreds of evidence. They are exceptions who are sought to be made an example of Saffron terror.

RSS, as an organisation has stood upto all kinds of persecution through democratic means since its first brush with government persecution with murder of Mahatma Gandhi to current times. It is again being targeted and efforts are being made to somehow link it to terrorism. Look at the simple facts, 85 years of a highly disciplined and well networked organisation, millions of members across India. An organisation that is under microscopic gaze of secular and Marxist lobby all these years ably supported by police and intelligence agencies. But, they have not been able to stick any dirt on it about terrorism or serious violence all these years. Recall that it could wage an underground fight against Emergency in a totalitarian police state with its vast network of volunteers and sympathisers for nearly 18 months. Imagine what RSS can do if it takes up extremist path earnestly…….