Dr. Aslam Abdullah
The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has ruled over India in the past, and the hell did not break loose. Why would it be different if Narendar Modi becomes the next prime minister of India with his party having a majority in parliament?
Times are different. The BJP of today is ideologically and administratively controlled by the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS). During the previous BJP government at the national level and at present through its strong presence in several states, the RSS has systematically acquired position of influence in the army, judiciary, academia and administration at various levels. The RSS has also created a myriad of organizations around its ideology at different levels. The organizations within the Sangh family include the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Vanbandhu Parishad,Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Vidya Bharati, Seva Bharati and many others spread in all parts of society. Numerous other Hindu organizations take inspiration from the RSS’s philosophy.
It is, therefore, not unsound to assume that the rise of Modi as the next prime minister of India might lead to a sea of change in India’s identity as a democratic and secular country.
The RSS is an organizations run by secret cells with a mass following committed to the sanctity of mother India. This para-military organization is no different than what any national army is expected to do. But the army defends the nation as a whole. The RSS is committed to an India that is controlled, dominated and run exclusively by Hindus belonging to a caste hierarchy deemed pure by the standards of Manu Samirti (codes of manu).
In its philosophy, organization and strategy, the RSS is not different than that of Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini’s National Fascist Party or that of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party.
One of the starlwarts of the RSS, M.S. Golwalkar, laid out the foundational principles of his organization when he wrote the following:
“To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races—the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well nigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.
“The non-Hindu people of Hindustan must either adopt Hindu culture and languages, must learn and respect and hold in reverence the Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but of those of glorification of the Hindu race and culture… in a word they must cease to be foreigners; Or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment— not even citizens’ rights.”
The secret cells of RSS have the expertise of many former army, police, intelligence and administrative officials who had and still have access to national resources to gather information on anyone. These cells carefully lay plans to help the organization inch towards its goal of total domination of the country. The Gujarat massacres that took place in 2002 provide a glimpse of the tactics used by RSS to serve its interests. The massacred were originally planned to purge the state of Muslims and other minorities.
In Modi, the RSS has found a man who can follow its dictates fully and execute the plan perfectly. With every new day, India is learning the ways Modi manipulated the state resources to fulfill the RSS objectives in Gujarat without being caught by the law. Everyone in Gujarat knows that Modi carried out the RSS plans without leaving any legal trace.
The secrecy of RSS makes it one of the most dangerous organizations in the world. It has its own intelligence, hit squads and international PR groups. Through temples and social service organizations in India and abroad it collects funds that support millions of its workers and their projects.
RSS views Muslims and Christians as the two influential groups that pose threats to India’s integrity and security. Christians are considered dangerous because of their ties with international Christian organizations in different parts of the world and Muslims because of their faith that give priority to one God over everything else. In the view of RSS, Muslims and Christians cannot be loyal to India, a land specified by Gods for Hindus alone.
Of course, there exist a vast majority of Hindus that do not subscribe to the ideology of RSS. But the RSS is a very well organized group that exists at every level and has the capacity to mobilize millions any time. It has a dedicated cadre that can carry out its plan without hesitation anywhere and it has a network of secret cells that plans events and has prepared a blue print for the future of a Hindu India.
RSS plan was to showcase an Indian state run by the BJP as a model of prosperity and development to the world to prepare the ground for its national government. While, simultaneously, it had also envisaged a state free from all minorities. The 2002 massacre of Gujarat were planned to drive minorities out of the state to turn it into purely Hindu state. But the plan did not work as perceived. The response of non-BJP Hindus shocked the RSS leadership. The way India’s federal government responded also surprised many. The RSS had expected the Indian government to ignore the massacres the way it had done so at the time of the demolition of the Babari masjid. But under the intensive persuasive power of India’s non-BJP Hindu intellectuals, the central government took a strong stand and challenged the Modi government. Had the central government kept quiet, RSS could have repeated the plans elsewhere.
RSS has the manpower and capacity to install Modi as the next prime minister of India. However, the only way RSS march can be checked is when the vast majority of India’s non-BJP Hindus come out on election day to cast their votes in favor of non-RSS candidates. India’s religious minorities will not support RSS with the exception of a few individuals and groups who value their personal interests more than the national interests. But rural India can be persuaded on religious issues. The RSS is fully aware of these realities; hence it will try to make religion a dominant factor in the forthcoming elections. It should not surprise anyone if they hear news about increased so called terrorist activities and attacks on temples and other sacred places before elections. It should not surprise anyone if the country experience a new wave of Hindu-Muslim riots and the world should not be shocked, if the plan to rebuild the Ram Temple at the site of the demolished Babari Masjid is unveiled. The BJP under the influence of RSS has already appointed Amit Shah, a man accused of masterminding the 2002 Gujarat massacres as the election strategist for Uttra Pradesh, a state that a must for any aspirant for any prime ministerial candidate.
In the glare of economic development, the world’s investors are ignoring the harsh ground realities in India and some of them under the influence and intense lobbying of pro-RSS groups in Europe and North America are trying to project Modi as a genuine progressive leader without realizing that the hands behind Modi are stained with blood including that of Mahatama Gandhi. The group that can engineer the murder of an emissary of peace, a Hindu from the state of Modi, would have no hesitation to cause genocides against even those Hindus whom it thinks detrimental to its interests. It is this danger that India is heading to and it is this danger that India must be saved from.
(Author is editor of the Muslim Observer, published from Detroit)
