RSS In Action In Rajasthan

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.

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 Mission’s 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 Vajpayee’s 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.

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).

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.

People's Democracy