Using the Gauri Lankesh murder for anti- RSS political capital is sadism of the worst kind.
A class of intellectuals, including a large part of the media, habitually blames RSS for everything and anything. Following the Modi government’s advent, secularist intellectuals and the media have left no stone unturned to create an anti-government atmosphere by using events and undesirable statements, none of which are due to any responsible leader of the RSS.” — Prof Rakesh Sinha
Veteran journalist Gauri Lankesh was slain in cold blood outside her home in Bengaluru earlier this week and the horrific murder of such a high profile and senior media figure has shocked and angered India.
Lankesh was a very outspoken critic of right-wing politics in India and was slain by three assailants who shot at her at point blank range outside her home.
The killing has been condemned by people from across the board, including by Karnataka leaders of the BJP and the RSS, who also hit out at the Siddaramaiah-led government.
On Tuesday night, the RSS Karnataka unit released a statement condemning Gauri’s killing. “RSS strongly condemns the killing of senior editor, writer and columnist Gauri Lankesh. We pray that God grants her family the strength to withstand the loss. We demand that the government rapidly tracks down the perpetrators and ensures justice,” the statement read.
However, in general terms this has not stopped the Maoists, Communists, Congress militia and left leaning armchair warriors from pouring scorn and pointing the finger of murder directly at the RSS who according to their nihilist agenda seemingly must have carried out the killing. Are they soothsayers or have they simply leapt aboard the anti-Hindu wagon train in which they booked first class seats long before the events of last Tuesday?
The fact is the RSS, in Karnataka and elsewhere in India, remains India’s most maligned and yet thoroughly misunderstood organisation. It is India’s most powerful NGO and it is a thorn in the side of its critics that despise the fact PM Narendra Modi is as popular and powerful as he is, and also that he
is himself an RSS pracharak or activist, with several key members of his Cabinet and government also coming from RSS backgrounds.
Those looking to make political capital out of the murder of Gauri Lankesh need to put their hatred of right-wing politics and Hindutva aside and should instead understand the importance of RSS in Indian society, especially when morally bankrupt politicians like Mamata (or Mumtaz) Banerjee use their hatred of it to dilute India of its very cultural backbone and Hindu-majority religious spirit.
The RSS is possibly the world’s largest cultural association with a membership that runs well into the millions, complemented by its representatives fronting almost 150 associated bodies that guide governmental policy. It is therefore an unmatched force in current Indian civil society, influencing almost every aspect of Indian life.
What makes the RSS really effective is its cadre of hundreds of thousands of dedicated volunteers called svayamsevaks or self-helpers. They are its backbone and also ensure India stands for Hindu and Indian national unity.
This angers many on the left who immediately feel the RSS sanctioned (in one way or another) the events of last Tuesday. They trot out
misconceptions, canards and outright lies in their effort to disparage RSS for being Indian in India.
For example they love to say that the RSS advocates how Indian it is yet did not participate in the freedom struggle. In reality, the founder of the RSS, Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgawar, himself a Congressman, was jailed twice by the British, in 1920 and 1930 for fighting British rule.
During the Quit India movement, several thousand RSS workers offered individual satyagraha against British rule even though the Sangh did not officially participate for strategic reasons.
Following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi (by an ex-RSS member who went off the rails), the RSS was banned in 1948 just so Nehru could collectively punish an organisation that put the idea of Indian national identity first before egalitarian bigotry. Some 70,000 svayamsevaks courted arrest in the democratically elected government of independent India under Jawaharlal Nehru before the ban was lifted on July 12, 1949.
Then there was the 1975 Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi. Again, thousands of RSS workers went to jail fighting for Indian (not just Hindu) civil rights and liberties during this process. How then can the left argue the RSS is fascist or anti-democratic?
The position throughout pockets of India now is to disparage the RSS in every turn and to usurp democracy. Such can be seen in West Bengal where a state-owned auditorium in Kolkata cancelled the booking for a programme in which RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was to be present as chief guest just this week.
“To take vengeance on RSS, Mamata Banerjee cancelled the event of Sister Nivedita Mission Trust, which is working among poor and destitute women,” RSS media coordinator Manmohan Vaidya said. The RSS functionary alleged that West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had done so to “appease jihadi elements”. “
This comes in the wake of West Bengal government’s decision banning the immersion of Durga idols on September 30 and October 1 as it coincided the Muharram processions. West Bengal’s action comes not long after the Kerala government’s bid to ban Bhagwat from unfurling the national flag at a school on Independence Day.
Despite the state government denying permission, Bhagwat went on to unfurl the national flag. It is this kind of defiance that should ensure that Lankesh’s murder is not just a political point scoring measure.
Whatever her politics were or the resolve of her anti-Hindu rhetoric, murder is murder and cannot be allowed to dictate a communist and left wing agenda to extricate Indian patriotism from the largest democracy in the world.
