RSS talks glasnost but are Pathological haters listening?

With a very loud and clear message, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, ideological guide of BJP and the Modi government, usually busy in constructive and nationalist works, held a public lecture and discussion progression at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan. The venue was the grand Nehruvian laboratory, a symbol of Indian state power, typically the parade ground of constitutional VIPs.

Today, surprisingly for the first time ever, the ‘patriotic and nationalist’ RSS, faced three banns, since Independence, habitually trolled and abused by the Darbar of Delhi ‘sultanate’, demonstrated that it is trying to come out from Hedgewar Bhavan to Vigyan Bhavan to teach them some lessons of nationalism and tolerance.

Mohanrao Bhagwat, sarsanghchalak, was the main speaker and he was the main attraction. He took the initiative to tell the nation about the misconception about RSS and told the nation that RSS believes in unity, inclusiveness and it never hated any community. Bhagawat tied to clear the misunderstandings in the mind of Hindus that Hindus and Hindutva cannot be hardliners. It is the mudslinging by the vested interests to link the Hindus with lynching. It will be in the interest of the nation if wider society participates in RSS ideals,

It was the opposition parties which always try to defame RSS and Hindus as a part of violent mobs as a symbol of Hindutva that are today such a dreadful advertisement by the opposition to please Muslims. He also cleared the misinterpretation about the ideologue MS Golwalkar’s observation that Muslims are the ‘internal enemy’.

Not only the RSS is defamed but also it is the left controlled media, which always accuses Hindu organizations like the Bajrang Dal, VHP, and other Hindu groups as the violent Parivar outfits on the ground in the frame of mind to follow their leaders. These elements never criticize parties like Muslim League, which were responsible for the division of the nation and pogrom and displacement of lakhs of Hindus. Now, will the anti-RSS brigade shun on their prime and relentless hate campaign to appease the ‘Mussalman’?

After listening to the discussions of Vigyan Bhavan, this anti-RSS brigade must rethink about their hate campaign against the RSS and the cows. Bhagwat declared that RSS prefers ‘yukt’ or united. This shows RSS is above the narrow campaign of the secularists, Communists and Islamists.

For decades the RSS has been treated as ‘untouchable’, it still faces the hate campaign. Yet today, having elected to the top of power in Raisina Hill, the RSS feels politically and socially it has been accepted by the masses and it is the right time to tell the nation about its principles. But Bhagwat’s Gorbachev moment could not be intended for nation breaking and suicidal publicity like Gorbachev. Strong Hindu Rashtra with full faith in the Constitution of India.

Specific questions arise. The Muslims and the secular parties will shun their deep-rooted hate for BJP and RSS. Will they change? Muslim clerics and intellectuals should persuade the Muslims to change their outlook towards RSS and BJP in elections and make them more acceptable among minority constituencies for a greater share in political representation?

Will Muslims also rethink about their first loyalty to their holy lands lie outside India, which made India for them as secondary land, and they are seen as secondary citizens of India. Ironically, the RSS Hindutva and nationalist icon Late Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s formulation of “punyabhumi” and “pitrabhumi expressed the same views” about Muslims.

Will the secular and communist outfits who always criticize Hindu outfits of ‘love jihad’ and ‘ghar wapsi’ campaigns, change their attitude? Will the anti-Sangh outfits accept that the Ram Mandir issue is an issue of faith but not a merely legal dispute? Will they convince their followers and Muslims to sing Vande Mataram? The head of the parivar has clarified its aim; but still, don’t know if opponents are willing to change.

Evidently, all want the RSS to change but others are not ready to change because their business of hate and lies will be shut. Today, the Hindutva Parivar's is the biggest nationalist force behind PM Modi, whose persona dwarfs all the secular and Lenin pariwar. It is very clear the anti-RSS outfits are anxious for their dominating share of media space, not only to affirm their importance but also to relocate them in an election year when coalition dealings are in the air and political outcomes remain unsure.

Yet the attempts by RSS leaders at Vigyan Bhavan are not enough. The real problem is, will the opposition manage to pull off a deep-seated rethink on all its mindset, from poisoning the religious minorities, especially Muslims, to Dalits to its views on correcting the history or indeed to its meaning of nationhood? Moreover, will the secular and left parivar stacks agree to this call for an ideological revamp?

If, after the RSS’s Vigyan Bhavan moment, aggressive opposition stop its usual hate campaigns then the real aim of the conclave will be futile: and the cunningly astute opposition political parties to win again in 2019 will defeat a genuine reach-out or even glasnost.