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Ram
Puniyani
An old controversy resurfaced
lately. After the alleged denial of government jobs to candidates linked to
the RSS, Minister of State in the PMO, Jitendra Singh, said last week that
“the central government has not issued any such order (prohibiting government
staff from joining RSS activities) recently”, and “if any old order exists,
we will review it.” (16 June,
2016) RSS Prachar Pramukh Manmohan Vaidya had already stated that, “Banning
RSS members from joining government service; is unjust and undemocratic. Such
bans hardly affect RSS work and morale of swayamsevaks.” (Indian
Express 11 June 2016)
As such civil servants are banned
from participating in the political organizations. RSS calls itself cultural
organization, and that's what has been used as a ruse by the state
governments on couple of occasions to permit the civil servants in joining
RSS. In Gujarat when this permission was granted (Jan 2000), the President on
receiving the protests intervened, and the Mr. Vajpayee prevailed upon the
state BJP and got this permission revoked. Later in MP Chouhan Govt. lifted
the ban; thereby the government servants could join and carry on the RSS work openly (2006).
The basic premise of Indian
constitution and parliamentary democracy is that the civil service should be
neutral. Already RSS has infiltrated into various wings of the state
apparatus by sending its trained swayamsevaks to work in different areas of
bureaucracy in states as well as at Center. In addition to these elements the
'social common sense' is so doctored that in the times of violence a big
chunk of police and other state officials aid and abet the violence against
minorities, putting aside the norms of constitution and even the civic
decency. Thus far many a reports on the communal carnage have indicated the
role of RSS and the complicity of police and other officials in the anti minority pogroms.
Such permission to the civic service opens the flood gates for the total
communalization of the civil service which is the backbone of the state
apparatus.
What about the argument that RSS
is not a political organization; it is an organization which is cultural,
committed to build a Hindu nation. This claim itself gives the game away;
building a nation is a political process so how can this organization claim
to be merely a cultural one? After seeing the actions of RSS and its role in
the political arena, its role in dictating its political progeny, the BJP,
any doubt about it's being a cultural organization vanishes into thin air.
RSS is a political organization which operates through its different progeny;
some of which claim to be non political to achieve its political goal.
Initially, it was just training
the political volunteers, swayamsevaks, and from 1952 it started floating the
direct political organizations, first Bharatiya Jansangh and then BJP (after
earlier floating Rashtra Sevika Samiti in 1936 and ABVP in 1948). It acted as
controller of Janasangh and whosoever disagreed with its’ polices was removed
from being the office bearer, Balraj Madhok, the President of Jana Sangh who
was removed from his post for disagreeing with RSS line. Many more examples
abound. Earlier in 1998 one saw it dictating the process of cabinet making,
the allotment of portfolios, like wanting to have Yashwant Sinha as Finance
minister, instead of Jaswant Singh. It came out openly against its’ Lal
Krishna Advani, when he stated that Jinnah was a secular.
In one of the affidavits filed,
miscellaneous application No 17 of 1978, two of its functionaries, Deoras and
Rajendrasingh, stated, "The work of RSS is neither religious nor
charitable, but its objects are cultural and patriotic as
contra-distinguished religious or charitable. It is akin to political purposes,
though RSS is not at present a political party as much as RSS constitution…bans
active participation by the RSS as such, as a policy…Tomorrow the policy
could be changed and RSS could participate even in day-to-day political
activity as a political party because policy is not a permanent or
irrevocable thing."
How do we assess the nature of
organizations, by their own claims or from the outcome of their activities?
One has to note the claims of RSS being a cultural organization is a pure
make believe. It operates in the political arena by remote control, by
mechanisms which are direct as well as indirect. Its swayamsevaks have been
involved in Gandhi murder, murder of Pastor Stains, demolition of Babri
masjid and running of political parties. Two noteworthy incidents are one
when the Jansangh component of Janata party broke away from Janata party
since their double membership, of RSS and of Janata party was challenged.
Also Vajpayee himself claimed with pride that he is first a swayamsevak and
than the prime minister of India. Recently faced with similar criticism Home
Minister Rajanath Singh said’ we are RSS’.
Different progenies of RSS have
been allotted the work in diverse social arenas to be able to control the
basic thought process of society, starting from Saraswati Shishu Mandir right
up to RSS shakha where through the bauddhiks the indoctrination into
political ideology is carried on. It does monitor all its progeny and
coordinates their activities through All India Pratinidhi Sabha
(All India representatives Association) which meets regularly to coordinate
their activities. Its goal is political, its actions are political and its
outcome is political through and through.
Even without being in power it is
able to control the politics through various mechanisms. Currently through
the compliant Government its agenda runs exponentially faster, the way
Gujarat and many other states has demonstrated. Now its agenda is running
from bottom to top and top to bottom both ways since the BJP is the ruling
party at the centre. With the employees being openly participating in
RSS the divisive processes will move faster and running the administration on
the lines of Indian Constitution will become all the more difficult. Despite
knowing that such a provision is not legally tenable, many in the seat of
power are asking for government servants be permitted to be part of RSS and
vice versa.
The present opinions being articulated
by RSS leaders should neither be legally permissible nor are in tune with the
principles of Constitution of India.
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