( First published in newsclick.in)
Would
it be possible to imagine that leader of any organisation openly
declaring that her/his people/activists have the ability to prepare an
"army" in three days
, can be deployed on the front within three days, questions the ability of the security forces for quick operations, and does not face any legal hassles ?
A lesser mortal would have been definitely hauled up for such ''ánti-national" act by now
Well, when it comes to the 'Pitrusangathan' - as the RSS is called in the larger Parivar - and its numero uno Mohan
Bhagwat things move bit differently. Forget any hassles what one
witnessed is unbelievable. A minister of the government rushed to
Bhagwat's defence (http://indianexpress.com/arti cle/india/kiren-rijiju-defends -mohan-bhagwat-trinamool-congr ess-calls-him-minister-of-sang h-5061058/) when RSS's supremos speech in Muzaffarpur, Bihar caused uproar in the country.
An
apology from the RSS Supremo was demanded for 'disrespecting the army
and our martyrs' and adding “an insult to every Indian,...” ( Rahul
Gandhi) or transgressing 'constitutional propriety'( Vijayan, Kerala
CM), or 'lowering the morale of the force. (Mayawati) etc...
The clarification of sorts provided by the Akhil Bharatiya Prachaar Pramukh of the RSS, Manmohan Vaidya, about this controversial statement added further insult to injury :
“..[B]hagwat
ji had said that if a situation arises and the Constitution permits,
Indian Army would take six months to prepare society, whereas
swayamsevaks can be trained in three days as swayamsevaks practise discipline regularly. .."
What
Anand Sharma, spokesperson of the Congress said was more scathing.
Demanding Bhagwat's apology and a response from PM on this remarks, it
said how the statement itself and the clarification provided smacked of a
dangerous mindset.
“What
the RSS chief has said is deeply disturbing and unacceptable. It
amounts to insulting the Indian Army. Mohan Bhagwat’s statement about
mobilising RSS supporters like an Army also means he talking about RSS
running a private militia. We have already seen the dangerous
consequences of such private militia in Afghanistan, in the form of IS
in Syria and in many African countries such as Angola. We will not allow
such a design in India,”
A
moot question arises : Whether RSS Supremo would have a change of heart
and would seek apology for his 'misrepresented' statement or issue
clarification .
Looking
at the intrasigence shown by the ruling dispensation on various
occasions - where it has rather perfected the art of not saying sorry -
it would be daydreaming to think that the RSS Supremo, formally head of
the 'largest cultural organisation in the world', would express regrets.
Anyone who entertains any doubt about this can have a look at the
regular consultations between the 'Pitrusangathan' and various
stakeholders in the government (e.g. http://www.tribuneindia. com/news/comment/boundaries-be tween-rss-bjp-dissolve/141962. html) or the fluidity of the boundaries between RSS and BJP, where Pracharaks metamorphose overnight into leaders of BJP and are easily accepted.
2
While
debate would continue around the 'ínsult' heaped by the RSS Supremo on
the army, one was bit surprised over the candidness with which Mohan
Bhagwat spoke , frankly admitting what goes on within this 'biggest
cultural organisation in the world'.
In
fact there are rare occasions when you get to hear such clear cut
statements from people associated with it. e.g. Not very many people
would remember today that when involvement of Hindutva fanatics in
terror acts had made headlines, and RSS had found itself on the
defensive, Mohan Bhagwat had made this significant statement talking to
RSS members in Surat
..of
the majority of the people whom the government hasaccused (in various
blast cases), a few had left voluntarily and a few were told by the
Sangh that this extremism will not work here so you go away...
(‘No place for radicals in RSS, says Bhagwat’, The Indian Express, Delhi, 11-01-2011, p. 3 quoted in https://www.countercurrents .org/shamsul200113.pdf)
A
combination of strict discipline, military type of training and action
against the óther' pervades the broad universe of Hindutva
organisations.
Critics and opponents of this exclusivist project have been underlining it since quite some time.
Commissions
appointed by governments to look into riots in post-independence India
have been consistent in underlying the alleged role of the local level
cadres of the Hindutva Brigade.
Scholars
of communal conflicts who have observed /studied Hindu-Muslim riots in
post-Independent India have talked about emergence of "institutionalised
riot systems" in which the organizations of militant Hindu nationalism
are deeply implicated. (http://www.paulbrass.comthe_ production_of_hindu_muslim_ violence_in_contemporary_ india_16681.htm)
e.g.
The demolition of Babri Mosque by hordes of Hindutva Supremacist forces
- which recently completed twenty five years - was also a very
organised affair - which was cloaked under 'spontaniety of the masses'
by interested quarters. e.g. The video magazine 'Newstrack'had then sent
a team of reporters on the infamous day.
The
recordings captured Hindu leaders, including .., exhorting the crowd
that the masjid must be destroyed and a temple built. ..
Rehearsals
of demolition teams practising with ropes, pick-axes and boulders were
recorded by Newstrack. The images included Bajrang Dal leader .. in
khaki shorts ‘directing’ with a whistle...
The
idea of discipline and penchant for military type action is even
visible in co-travellers on the Hindutva path. Remember what Justice
Srikrishna commission - which was formed to look into Mumbai riots in
Dec 1992 and Jan 2013 - had said about Bal Thackeray. It had
unambiguously stated that Thackeray "like a veteran general commanded
his loyal Shiv Sainiks to retaliate with organised attacks against
Muslims". (https://www.indiatoday.in/mag azine/cover-story/story/199808 17-srikrishna-panel-report-ind icts-shiv-sena-chief-bal-thack eray-for-role-in-1993-mumbai-r iots-826921-1998-08-17).
Interestingly
relative newcomers on this path - who want to turn India into Hindu
Rashtra - seem more explicit. Organisations like Sanatan Sanstha and
Hindu Janjagruti Samity (SS and HJS) - where destruction of evildoers’
is an integral part of ‘spiritual practice’ and where this‘destruction’
is to be done at ‘physical and psychological level’, seekers ( called
'Sadhaks) are also provided with training in arms – rifles, trishuls,
lathis and other weapons' to facilitate this ‘Dharm Kranti’ (religious revolution) . (http://indianexpress.com/arti cle/explained/history-backgrou nd-of-sanatan-sansthas-war-on- evildoers/) A very important text in the training of the seekers/ Sadhaksis
'Texts on Defence' where seekers of divine kingdom are also imparted
training with air rifles ( Vol 3 H – Self Defence Training, Chapter 6,
Page 108-109) ( For further details see : https://kafila.online/2008/0 7/03/spiritual-as-communal/)
3.
Could
it be said that Bhagwat's claim was 'a slip of toungue' or was an empty
boast made to boost the morale of its cadres or he was serious about
it.
While
one can debate the timing of the statement, but nobody can say that he
did not mean what he said or is ignorant of what he meant.
Reports
galore where affiliated organisations of RSS - namely Bajrang Dal,
Durga Vahini - are seen imparting training supposedly for self defence
which also involves rifle training ( https://www.newsgram.com/dur ga-vahini-a-self-defense-progr am-for-hindu-women-in-india ; https://www.indiatimes.com/new s/india/j-k-girls-turn-up-in-h uge-numbers-at-durga-vahini-tr aining-camp-for-self-defence-e xercise-325387.html).
But
what has largely gone unnoticed is the establishment of a proper
military school by Dr B S Munje, mentor of Dr Hedgewar and one of the
founders of RSS.( 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 - Ref :
Page 16, Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags, Tapan Basu, Pradip Datta, Sumit
Sarkar, Tanika Sarkar, Sambuddha Sen) which completed eighty years last
year.
This
military school had come under scanner when investigations started to
unearth the sprawling network of Hinduva terror when it was discovered
that premises of this school were used for holding military style
training camps for band of fanatics. Reports had appeared in a section
of the press that ‘[t]here are leads of some Hindu leaders from
Bangladesh having attended the training camps held at the Bhonsala
Military School, “(outlook 23 Nov 2008).
In
one of the first exhaustive writeup "“Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the
1930s: Archival evidence” in Economic & Political Weekly, January
22, 2000 Marzia Casolari ( http://www.epw.in/journal/20 00/04/special-articles/hindutv as-foreign-tie-1930s.html)
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 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
( From Munje Diary, http://www.frontline.in /cover-story/moonje-mussolini/ article6756630.ece)
After
returning to India Moonje formed the Central Hindu Military Education
Society at Nasik in 1935 and started the school on 12th June 1937. If
one refers to the official website of the School one discovers that
"...[T]he
school started functioning in the Surgana Palace in Nasik city with 90
students on its roll. The Maharaja of erstwhile Gwalior state, H H
Shriman Jivajirao Scindia inaugurated the main building of the school.
In his inaugural speech, He said, “It is not a mere coincidence that
within a short period of the opening of a first rate public school in
India (he was referring to the Doon School, Dehradun), we are here today
to open a first rate Military School.”
It is aimed
"..to
bring about military regeneration of the Hindus and to fit Hindu youths
for undertaking the entire responsibility for the defence of their
motherland. ... to educate them in the ‘Sanatan Dharma’, and to train
them “in the science and art of personal and national defence” (‘Central
Hindu Military Education Society,’ NMML, Munje Papers, subject files, n 24, 1932-36)
As rightly noted by Prof Shamsul Islam ( https://www.countercurrents. org/shamsul200113.pdf)
it provided "Hindu military officers to the British Army in its
campaign to crush the attempt by Subhash Chandra Bose led INA to
liberate India" and it was thus a "colloborative project between the
British rulers and their Indian stooges" which was executed by these
Hindutva organisations'.
The
school celebrated platinum jubilee of its founding in 2012 and Mohan
Bhagwat was invited as a Chief Guest for the function. In his long
speech he had made two significant points : One, "..[E]xpressing concern
over the dominance of ‘rich and powerful people’ in politics, besides
the soaring inflation rate, he said that India’s situation was better
during the British rule"" Two, he …"laid stress on the need for
imparting military education to students, citing rising threat to the
nation"