EDITORIAL

Oppose This Contempt For The Rule Of Law

DESPITE evoking scant response from the people, all outfits of the RSS, including its political arm – the  BJP – have  declared to launch a nationwide agitation denouncing the arrest of the Head of the Kanchi Mutt, Jayendra Saraswati.  Three of the top BJP leaders have held day-long dharnas in the capital denouncing the arrest.

Clearly, for the RSS/BJP, the arrest coming in the wake of strong evidence in a brutal murder case is of no consequence.  That the law of the land is applicable equally to everybody irrespective of the position they occupy is, again, of no consequence.  It is an elementary principle in any democratic civil society that nobody can be treated above the law.  Those who cry hoarse demanding a uniform civil code with the objective of sharpening communal polarisation are not even willing to accept a universal criminal code!

This, however, need not appear strange. The RSS has never reconciled to the secular democratic republican character of India. Flowing from this, Golwalkar had once described the Indian Constitution as being “Un Hindu”. In fact, the RSS agenda is to transform the secular democratic modern Indian republic into a rabidly intolerant “Hindu Rashtra” of their conception. 

Given such an ideological orientation, it is only natural for the RSS to protect the culprits of heinous crimes in the name of “religious sentiments”.  They are doing this in the most brazen fashion in Gujarat protecting the perpetrators of one of the worst communal carnage that independent India had ever witnessed. 

It is this rejection of India’s secular democratic Constitution that led the RSS/BJP to undertake the destruction of the Babri Masjid.  Even at that time, they advanced their conception that the courts and the law of the land cannot adjudicate in matters of “religious faith”. This is nothing but the gross misuse of religion for political ends.  It is this contempt and rejection of the law of the land that is reflected in the current stand of the RSS/BJP. 

This RSS/BJP’s stand is tantamount to protecting  those accused of heinous murder.  Should a crime of this nature go uninvestigated?  Should the law of the land not take its course to deliver justice?  By answering these questions in the negative, the RSS/BJP are pitting themselves against the law of the land and the judicial structure.  They are, once again, emerging in their true colours.  They remain committed to destroying the secular democratic Indian Republic by pursuing their communal fascistic agenda. 

Amongst various other forceful reasons for not allowing such forces to control State power in our country, is this particular stand of the RSS/BJP.

For the sake of India, i.e., Bharat, these forces must be kept as far away as possible from the control of the government and the administration.  The universal principle of natural justice in civil societies, that is, everybody is equal before the law must be scrupulously adhered to.  The law of the land must be assisted to take its normal course. No interference or intimidation must be tolerated.