RSS In Action
In Rajasthan
By Nalini Taneja
07 March, 2005
People's
Democracy
If
anybody needs convincing that every election is important, they should
look at the chain of events in Rajasthan since the BJP came to power
in the state.
The chief minister,
Vasundhara Raje, is a committed member of the RSS, and has been doing
at the state level pretty much what the BJP led government at the centre
did with the state resources at its command. The administration and
police postings have ensured that RSS people hold strategic decision
making and law enforcing positions in the state. A spate
of appointments will ensure that the RSS remains a presence in state
agencies should the BJP be defeated in the next elections. Trishul
dikshas organised by the Bajrang Dal became occasions for hate
campaigns against Muslims, and tribals have been mobilised more than
once against the Muslims by the Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad.
RSS OPERATIONS
IN FASCIST MOULD
More recently the RSS has sprung into direct action: it has organised
attacks against the Christians once again, sponsored spurious claims
of support on behalf of Muslims for its agenda by setting up bogus organisations
with disreputable people from among Muslims themselves, and has managed
a university for itself through the good offices of Vasundhara Raje.
In Kota, on February
19, activists of the RSS, BJP and Bajrang Dal descended on a train and
beat up workers of a Christian organisation, the Emmanuel Mission. A
group of 250 youth who had come from Andhra to attend the Missions
programme were forcibly taken to the police station on the basis of
the charge that the mission was trying to convert them to Christianity
(The Asian Age, February 20, 2005). A BJP corporator, Krishan Soni,
also lodged a case against Bishop MA Thomas to the same effect. Not
to be left behind, the Rajasthan social welfare minister, Madan Dilawar,
boasted that he had asked his officers to constitute an inquiry
and send him a report against the mission as he had been
receiving complaints (from the RSS?). He expected (wanted)
the report to be against the organisation even before the
inquiry was made. The deputy mayor, Ravindra Nirbhay, was
actually present at the station during these goings on.
The incident has
been, as is usual with fascists, turned against the victims themselves,
who are facing harassment at the hands of the administration, and who
now have to explain why they are interested in attending programmes
organised by Christian organisations, while those who beat them up and
threatened further consequences, are roaming free. It has
also become an occasion to demand that the law against religious conversions.
This is a leaf from Atal Bihari Vajpayees book who after attack
on Christians in Gujarat had spoken in his statesman-like
tone that there should be a national debate on religious conversions.
The matter may well result in such a law if the BJP is allowed to have
its way.
TEACHING CULTURAL
NATIONALISM TO MUSLIMS
RSS has also funded a meet of Rashtrawadi Muslim Andolan, My Hindustan,
a bogus organisation floated by the RSS. There was an all-India conclave,
organised by the Rajasthan Madrasa Board chief, in Jaipur, to teach
Muslims the tenets of ''cultural nationalism''. Board chairman, MA Ansari
said: the agenda is simple--Hindu-Muslim unity. ''We want Muslims to
give up their current mindset and understand the realities of a multicultural
India.'' ''Agar Bharatiya hain to wafadaar to hona hi padega (If we
are Indians, we have to be loyal).'' And what exactly he meant by that
is clear from the invitations sent out, in which the organisers expressed
their desire to ensure Vande Mataram echoes throughout the country;
and that cows are protected zealously. (The Indian Express, February
11, 2005).
There were of course
protests by some members of the Muslim community which led to imposition
of prohibitory orders around the venue, a few arrests and a whole force
of policemen taking over the area. The media were kept away as Sudarshan
himself addressed the meeting, perhaps following some negative reports
of the event in local media. The coordinator of the Rashtrawadi Muslim
Andolan, Muzzafar Hussain, said afterwords that the convention
had debated common civil code, specifically in respect to Muslim women,
effective measures to prevent cow slaughter by the Centre, steps to
lift the socio-economic status of Muslims, and the need for better management
of Waqf Board properties in the states. Empowerment of Muslim women
and talaq laws were also discussed at length. (Deccan Herald,
February 14, 2005).
EXPANDING ITS
TENTACLES IN EDUCATION
Now the RSS also
has a University of its own, after setting up a number of educational
institutions in Rajasthan. The government has issued a letter of intent
for the self-financing university, to be located at Jandoli, on the
outskirts of Jaipur. The RSS had already established an educational
centre at Jandoli. The University has already been named as Keshav Vidyapeeth
Vishwavidyalaya, and would be awarding postgraduate degrees. According
to newspaper reports, the Rajasthan education minister, Ghanshyam Tiwari,
has directed his department to provide all help needed for the project,
and it will be a model university, dedicated to implementing the Sangh
ideology (The Asian Age, February 27, 2005). The courses will be based
on cultural nationalism and sciences, Ayurveda, Vedic science,
Yoga and medical science, and as the RSS officials put it, the idea
is to propagate our culture and sciences through the syllabi
(Hindustan Times, February 24, 2005). It will be on over 2,300 acres
of land. After three years it is planned that it be replicated in other
states. The dream of converting large tracts of public lands into RSS-controlled
real estate is being turned into a reality in Rajasthan.
The Congress party
simply does not wish to see the full portent of what the BJP is doing
in the states where it rules. The party has a right wing economic programme,
for which it needs the support of the BJP. It needs a tacit acceptance
by the BJP of whatever the left will not be willing to support: in return
the BJP is being allowed to get away with much that a secular government
in the centre should not allow. Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan
and, of course, Gujarat are seeing the expansion of the RSS linked organisations
even as we have a non BJP government in the centre. That is the tragedy
of our times within which the Left has to do what it can.