None can beat the RSS in its nefarious attempts
to undo a democratic-secular India from within.
This Hindutva brigade, knowing fully well that
the politics of Hindutva is not acceptable to
this country, continues evolving newest foul
methods of communalizing the democratic-secular
constitutional set-up. The latest in this series
has been the August 27, 2006, official communiqué
of the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh led by a
seasoned RSS cadre, Shivraj Singh Chauhan,
allowing state government employees open
participation in the activities of the RSS
including its ’shakhas’. Interestingly, the RSS
cadres have been ruling states of Gujarat,
Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh but no such
announcement were made for these states. This
blatant announcement has jolted even Congress
Party from its slumber towards the pitfalls of
the Hindutva game plan. Protesting against the
move, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi wrote a letter to the
President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam, demanding
his intervention to stop the MP government from
putting into action its above order. Sonia Gandhi
in her letter to the President petitioned that
the MP government move was not only "illegal and
unconstitutional“but also would result into”religious prejudices and passions and polarizing
the society". [1]

If Congress is serious in its protestation and
takes the fight to the logical conclusion, this
country can at least begin the process of putting
a stop to the anti-national activities of the RSS
and its gang. The issue is not only of saving
government employees from getting communalized by
coming in contact with the RSS but exposing an
organization which stands for Hindu separatism
and complete demolition of a democratic and
secular India. The RSS led Gujarat government had
come out with the same kind of communiqué in the
year 2000 but due to the intervention of the then
President of the India Republic, KR Narayanan,
the order was reversed. Unfortunately, neither
Congress nor the secular camp carried this fight
to the logical end which would have resulted in
proving that the RSS is antithetical to all those
principles and institutions on which
secular-democratic India rests.

The BJP chief, Rajnath Singh who happens to be a
senior RSS cadre himself, while defending the
order of the MP government said: "As far as RSS
is concerned, it is the world’s largest
socio-cultural body and there should be no ban on
participating in its activities." [2] It is
pertinent for the security and existence of our
democracy to compare the MP government’s
communiqué and its defence by the RSS gang with
the essentials of secular-democratic polity of
our country. A perusal of the comparison will
make it abundantly clear how MP government’s
order poses a very serious danger to our
constitutional set-up.

Is RSS a non-political organization?
We must compare the RSS claim that it is a
cultural-social organization and has nothing to
do with politics with the following two
statements of M. S. Golwalkar, who headed the RSS
after the death of the founder of the RSS, KB
Hedgewar, and is considered the greatest
ideologue of the organization till date. The
first statement tells us about the kind of
personnel who are sent to manipulate politics and
what is expected of them by the RSS. While
delivering a speech on March 16, 1954, in Sindi,
Wardha, he said,

"If we say that we are part of the organization
and accept its discipline then selectiveness has
no place in life. Do what is told. If told to
play kabaddi, play kabaddi; told to hold meeting
then meeting —.For instance some of our friends
were told to go and work for politics that does
not mean that they have great interest or
inspiration for it. They don’t die for politics
like fish without water. If they are told to
withdraw from politics then also there is no
objection. Their discretion is just not required". [3]

The second statement is also very significant and reads:
We know this also that some of our Swayamsevaks
[cadres] work in politics. There they have to
organize according to the needs of work public
meetings, processions etc., have to raise
slogans. All these things have no place in our
work. However, the actor should portray the
character accepted to the best of his capability.
But sometimes Swayamsevaks go beyond the role
assigned to an actor as they develop
over-zealousness in their hearts, to the extent
that they become useless for this work. This is
not good. [4]

We find here Guru Golwalkar referring to the
Swayamsevaks loaned to political offshoot as
’nat’ or performers who are meant to dance to the
tunes of the RSS. This fact should not be missed
here that Golwalkar’s above design of controlling
the political arm was elaborated in March 1960
almost nine years after the establishment of
Jansangh (the forerunner of the BJP) in 1951.

The RSS has strong political ambitions and
designs is further corroborated by a publication
of the RSS. The central publication house of the
RSS, the Suruchi Prakashan, Jhandewalan, New
Delhi, published, Param Vaibhav Ke Path Par
(1997) which gave details of more than 40
organizations created by the RSS for different
tasks. The BJP as a political organization
figures prominently in it at number 3, with the
ABVP, Hindu Jagaran Manch, Vishva Hindu Parishad,
Swadeshi Jagaran Manch and Sanskar Bharti etc.
The preface of the book itself declares that
"without the knowledge of the different kinds of
activities of the Sawyamsevaks (the volunteers of
the RSS) the introduction of the RSS is
incomplete. Keeping this in mind it has been
attempted in this book to produce the brief
information about the diverse activities of the
Sawyamsevaks. This book covers the organizational
status till 1996 —We believe that this book will
prove to be of use for those who want to
understand the RSS with the Swyamsevaks". [5]

RSS stands for building a Hindu state
Sadly, the whole debate on the MP government’s
communiqué is kept revolving round the fact
whether RSS is a political or non-political
organization. A far more serious issue is being
skirted that is to investigate into the evil
philosophical designs of the RSS about India. For
instance, if government employees are allowed to
join RSS ’shakhas’ it would be mandatory for them
to recite following Prarthana (prayer) and
Pratigya (oath), the recitation of which is must
in each ’shakha’.

Prarthana:

Affectionate Motherland, I eternally bow to you/O
Land of Hindus, you have reared me in comfort/O
Sacred Land, the Great Creator of Good, may this
body of mine be dedicated to you/I again and
again bow before You/O God almighty, we the
integral part of the Hindu Rashtra salute you in
reverence/For Your cause have we girded up our
loins/Give us Your Blessings for its
accomplishment. [6]

Pratigya:

Before the all powerful God and my ancestors, I
most solemnly take this oath, that I become a
member of the RSS in order to achieve all round
greatness of Bharatvarsha by fostering the growth
of my sacred Hindu religion, Hindu society, and
Hindu culture. I shall perform the work of the
Sangh honestly, disinterestedly, with my heart
and soul, and I shall adhere to this goal all my
life. Bharat Mata Ki Jai. [7]

Thus the government employees will not be
faithful to a secular India, as it exists as a
legal entity today but would be committed to
subvert it into a Hindu theocratic state.
RSS denigrates the National Flag and the Constitution

It is the outcome of its commitment to the
building of Hindu nation that the RSS hates the
Tr-icolour and the Constitution of India, the two
great symbols of our secular-democratic polity.
The RSS since its inception in 1925 has been
demanding that India is a Hindu nation and its
national flag should be Bhagwa Jhanda (saffron
flag) only. When the Constituent Assembly adopted
the Tricolour as the national Flag, the RSS
demanded the hoisting of saffron flag at the
ramparts of Red Fort in Delhi and openly
denigrated the choice of the Tricolour in the
following words:

The people who have come to power by the kick of
fate may give in our hands the Tricolour but it
never [sic] be respected and owned by Hindus. The
word three is in itself an evil, and a flag
having three colours will certainly produce a
very bad psychological effect and is injurious to
a country. [8]

Golwalkar while addressing the Gurupurnima
gathering at the RSS headquarters on July 14,
1946 declared that it was the saffron flag which
in totality represented great Hindu culture and
was the embodiment of God. He further resolved:
"We firmly believe that in the end the whole
nation will bow before this saffron flag." [9]

How loyal the RSS is to the Constitution of India
can be known by the following statement of
Golwalkar which is being reproduced from Bunch of
Thought, which is not only selection of the
writings of MS Golwalkar but also a Bible of the
RSS cadres.

Our Constitution too is just a cumbersome and
heterogeneous piecing together of various
articles from various Constitutions of Western
countries. It has absolutely nothing which can be
called our own. Is there a single word of
reference in its guiding principles as to what
our national mission is and what our keynote in
life is?No. [10]

In fact, RSS wanted this Constitution to be
replaced by Manusmriti or Codes of Manu which is
known for its derogatory and inhuman references
to Untouchables and women. When the Constituent
Assembly of India had finalized the Constitution
of India RSS was not happy. It’s organ, Organizer
in an editorial on November 30, 1949, complained,

But in our constitution there is no mention of
the unique constitutional development in ancient
Bharat. Manu’s Laws were written long before
Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this
day his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti
excite the admiration of the world and elicit
spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our
constitutional pundits that means nothing.

There is no doubt that participation of
government employees in the activities of such an
organization which openly decries the national
Flag and the Constitution will only hasten the
end of a democratic-secular India.

ANTI-DEMOCRACY

The RSS, contrary to the principles of democracy,
has been constantly demanding that India be ruled
under a totalitarian regime. Golwalkar while
delivering a speech before 1350 top level cadres
of the RSS at Madras in 1940 declared, "The RSS
inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology
is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and
every corner of this great land." [11] This slogan
of one flag, one leader and one ideology has
directly been borrowed from the programmes of the
Nazi and Fascist Parties of Europe. Thus all
those who will join the RSS bandwagon would
naturally be anti-thetical to a democratic India.

AGAINST FEDERALISM

The RSS is also dead against the federal
structure of the Constitution, again a Basic
Feature of the India polity. This is clear from
the following communication of Golwalkar, which
he sent to the first session of the National
Integration Council in 1961. It read,
Today’s federal form of government not only gives
birth but also nourishes the feelings of
separatism, in a way refuses to recognize the
fact of one nation and destroys it. It must be
completely uprooted, constitution purified and
unitary form of government be established. [12]
Imagine the bureaucracy who is supposed to be
committed to the federal set-up of India would
work to wreck it as per the wishes of RSS.

Role of RSS in Gandhiji’s murder

It is a matter of shame that government employees
in MP are being permitted to participate in the
activities of an organization which was held
responsible for the murder of Father of the
Nation, Mahatma Gandhi by no less a person than
Sardar Patel. Sardar as the first Home Minister
of India, in a letter dated July 18, 1948 to a
prominent leader of Hindu Mahasabha, Shyama
Prasad Mookerjee, wrote:

As regards the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, the
case relating to Gandhiji’s murder is sub judice
and I should not like to say anything about the
participation of the two organizations, but our
reports do confirm that, as a result of the
activities of these two bodies, particularly the
former, an atmosphere was created in the country
in which such a ghastly tragedy became possible.
There is no doubt in my mind that the extreme
section of the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in
the conspiracy. The activities of the RSS
constituted a clear threat to the existence of
Government and the State. Our reports show that
those activities, despite the ban, have not died
down. Indeed, as time has marched on, the RSS
circles are becoming more defiant and are
indulging in their subversive activities in an
increasing measure. [13]

If such are the philosophical commitments and
activities of the RSS how can any patriotic
Indian, what to talk of government employees, be
allowed to participate in the RSS activities? It
is high time that all those organizations and
individuals who have faith in a
secular-democratic India must ask the question
that when Maoists, Khalistanis and Islamists etc.
are routinely declared anti-national as they aim
at subverting the constitutional set-up of India,
why is it that RSS remains out of our scrutiny?
It is really unfortunate that Hindu Separatism is
yet to be acknowledged as a serious threat to the
Indian democracy despite its terrible
anti-national record. One reason could be as
underlined by a prominent leader of the RSS, "RSS
members are everywhere, including that very party
which is making all these allegations against
RSS. Just scratch their body and you will find
RSS blood inside." [14] This statement only shows
how grave is the danger from the Hindutva gang.

If Congress and other secular outfits are serious
about saving secular-democratic India they must
legally and politically confront the RSS gang
with the documents cited above. They also need to
weed out the Hindutva elements from their ranks.

The time is fast running out.

Notes

1 Cited in The Hindu, September 29, 2006.

2 Cited in The Statesman, September 29, 2006.

3 MS Golwalkar, Shri Guruji Samagar darshan
(collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), Bhartiya
Vichar sadhna, Nagpur, Volume 3, p. 33. Hereafter
referred as SGSD.

4 Ibid, Vol 4, pp. 4-5.

5 SD Sapre, Parm Vaibhav ke Path Per, Suruchi, Delhi, 1997, p. 7.

6 Shakha Darshika, Gyan Ganga, Jaipur, 1997, p.1.

7 Ibid, p. 66.

8 ’Mystery behind the bhagwa dhwaj’ in the RSS
English organ Organizer, August 14, 1947.

9 MS Golwalkar, SGSD, Nagpur, nd., Volume 1, p. 98.

10 MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya Sandhu, Bangalore, 1996, p. 238.

11 SGSD, Vol 1, p. 11.

12 Ibid, Vol 3, p. 128.

13 Letter 64 cited in Sardar Patel: Select
Correspondence19450-1950, Volume 2, Navjivan
Publishing House, Ahmedabad, 1977, pp. 276-277.

14 Cited in The Statesman, September 29, 2006.