[Reader-list] Anatomy of Sangh Parivar

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Anatomy of Sangh Parivar

Ram Puniyani

The arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in the context of Malegaon
blasts of September 29, 2008 has been an important step in the
investigation of bomb blasts which have been blowing the social peace
and communal amity. Along with her the arrest of army officers,
retired and serving, has unfolded the whole new dimension about
investigation of acts of terror. The involvement of Bhonsala Military
School has also come under the scanner of investigating agencies.

The Sadhvi has been the member of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad
and Durga Vahini, which are the parts of Sangh parivar, before she
adorned the saffron robe. Sangh parivar is the word coined by the RSS
and its progeny for the whole combine, all of them put together. RSS
acts as the central controller and its trained volunteers,
swayamsevaks, set up and manage different organizations to pursue the
goals of RSS.

Sadhvi's connections with BJP/RSS top leadership came to the surface
and the BJP leadership in particular, distanced itself from her,
initially. The ideological and political association was attempted to
be played down to a mere acquaintance. Disowning the member of its
outfits, after they do the crime is nothing new for Sangh
organizations. The first such disowning was done when RSS prachark
Nathuram Godse murdered the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.
Since RSS was not keeping records of its members etc. Nathuram claimed
in the court that he had nothing to do with RSS, despite the fact that
he was a trained RSS volunteer (swayamsevak). In an interview given to
'The Times of India' (25 Jan 98), his brother Gopal Godse, who was
also an accomplice in the murder, elaborated the apparent reasons for
hiding their affiliation with RSS. "Technically and theoretically he
(Nathuram) was a member (of RSS), but he stopped workings for it
later. His
statement in the court that he had left the RSS was to protect the RSS
workers who would be imprisoned following the murder, on the
understanding that they (RSS workers) would benefit from his
dissociating himself…"

The second major disassociation has been that from Rajendra Pal,
alias, Dara Singh who murdered Pastor Graham Steward Stains. His case
in the courts was fought by BJP ex Minister Dilip Singh Judeo's
brother. Dara Singh himself was an active worker of VHP, Bajrang Dal
and other Sangh organizations. All this was denied shamelessly by RSS
combine. And now come the one related to the Sadhvi.

After initial quiet on the issue, now the Hindutva parties (BJP, Shiv
Sena) are raising the army of lawyers to fight the case for her. Now
their plea is that every accused has a right to be defended. So far
they have kept quiet when the lawyers of the accused in the acts of
terror have been beaten up and many lawyers associations have resolved
not to fight the cases of accused in cases of acts of terror.

It was also stated by BJP spokesperson that there is no evidence,
proof of involvement of the Sadhvi. The technicalities of this proof
in this case apart one will like to know how many times, in how many
cases of arrest of 'alleged Muslim terrorists' this question is
raised. Their being a Muslim is a good enough proof of being a
terrorist in this scheme of things propagated by RSS combine, and even
the encounters, fake most of them, are welcomed by a section of these.

Then came the argument that since Sadhvi is a follower of 'cultural
nationalism', she can't be a terrorist! Here the partisan attitude of
those involved in this politics is clear. What they are referring to
by cultural nationalism is Hindu nationalism. As such cultural
nationalism has been promoted by the practitioners of politics in the
name of religion. Be it Muslim terrorists taught in the US promoted
Madrassas in Pakistan in yesteryears or the fundamentalists, doing
politics in the name of any religion. In case of Hindutva, this
cultural nationalism is the opposite of democratic nationalism, where
diversity and equality of all is the foundation of the political
ethos.

In case of RSS, cultural nationalism, is based on the some religious
texts and the culture of elite Hindus, which gives priority to the
Brahminical values, the values of caste and gender based inequality.
Democratic nationalism has its focus on respecting and approving all
cultures and   religions, while in RSS scheme of cultural nationalism
the Brahminical culture is the base of political nationalism. So what
label does one put to the acts of Godse and Dara Singh? Both of them
were steeped in the Cultural nationalism propagated by RSS combine.
The formula that terrorism done by Muslims is anti national and the
acts done by the ilk of Sadhvi are nationalism defies all the logic.
Any act of violation of the Indian law is anti national, there can't
be separate set of laws for those indulging in violence and heinous
crimes in the name of religion.

After initial hesitation, it started being said that she was pained by
the terrorism committed by Muslims, so this revenge terrorism was
meant to protect the Hindu society, and so subtle justification and
approval for this variety of crime as being the answer to the
terrorism done by Muslims. Some commentators are openly glorifying
this and some others are quietly going by this logic. One can say that
the Bajrang Dal and Sadhvi's ilk is not into terrorism because of so
called Islamic terrorism, it is in this more due to the indoctrination
which they have received through RSS indoctrination module. This
indoctrination reduces all the political-social issues to the
religious ones.

RSS indoctrination is carried out through its Shakha Baudhiks (Branch
intellectual sessions) and camps. It says that this is nation belongs
to Hindus alone. Here, the Muslims and Christians are foreigners, the
secular people are trying to say that this country belongs to all the
people, which is wrong. We need to ensure that these threats to Hindu
nation are dealt with properly.

RSS type indoctrination has also created the myth that all terrorists
are Muslim, deliberately overlooking that terrorists come from all the
religious communities, but not due to religious reasons. The reasons
behind terrorism are social, economic and political. Be it LTTE,
Khalistanis, ULFA, Irish Republican army all have indulged in
terrorism, the reasons being anything but religious. In RSS scheme of
things all the acts of terror have been projected to be due to Islam
and Muslims. So the two modules merge and create the mind set of
Sadhvi or Bajrang Dal members who have died while making bombs in
Nanded and Kanpur or members of Hindu Jagran Samiti who planted bombs
in Thane near Mumbai.

The current involvement of army officers, Bhonsla Military School and
the members of different wings of Sangh privar should not be a
surprise if one sees the structure and functioning of RSS. RSS founded
to oppose democracy and to work for Hindu nation has been working,
indoctrinating and creating more and more organizations to fulfill it
objective of Hindu nation, which in essence means to restore the
feudal hierarchical values of caste and gender in Indian context, to
work for status quo around the modern version of Brahminical system.
Its trained swayamsevaks, have been on one hand directly entering the
political formations, Bhatiay Janata Party, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarhti
Parishad, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrma, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Hindu Munnani,
Bajrang Dal, Samajik Samrasta Manch on one hand, creating subordinate
organizations amongst women, Rashtra Seviak Samiti, Durga Vahini etc
on the other hand. Vast layers of Saints, the likes Asaram Bapu or Sri
Sri
Ravishakar, or Narnedra Maharaj are ideologically on same wave length
as RSS and through their work they lay the ground for the politics of
RSS to flourish in different sections of society.

Its second strategy has been that of infiltration in the different
wings of state machinery, police, bureaucracy, Judiciary. On yet
another layer its recruits have been working in the field of education
and media by the mechanism of infiltration. Its hold and vicious grip
on society cannot just be assessed by the electoral strength of BJP.
That's why Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister, in Staten
Island could assert that first he is the swayam sevak of RSS and then
the prime minister. That's why in 1977, when the Bharatiya Jansangh,
previous avatar of BJP, who were part of Janata Party, were told to
severe their links with RSS, they preferred to break the Janata party
rather then severing their affiliation with RSS. Its strength comes
from the earlier silent, by now violent, infiltration in all spheres
of social and political activities. Its wing amongst retired military
officers ensures that people like Retired army Officer Upadhyay is
probably the part of the Malegaon and other such blasts.

Bhonsala military school has been managed by RSS in more ways than
one, so not only it may be a place for hatching the conspiracies for
blasts, but also for turning out recruits who can aid and assist this
Sangh combine while serving in the army. Surprise is not that Bhonsla
military school's connection with this politics is coming to surface,
surprise is not that Upadhyay and Purohits' links are coming to
surface so late; surprise is that how they hid it so long and so well?

Various components of RSS family sometimes have some differences also,
but these are sorted out by the patriarch RSS, through subtle control
and ideological mechanisms so that their cohesion with the goal to
destroy democracy, through all the means, including using democratic
platforms for the same, remains intact. Sadhvi is involved in the
blasts or not, army officers or involved in these acts or not should
hopefully come out despite their ideological plants scattered all
over. What it has brought to our notice is the dangers of this multi
headed hydra, which is working in the democratic system with a goal to
abolish democracy itself and bring in Hindu nation, another name of
fascist formation, abusing the Hindu religion, the religion of Kabir
and Gandhi!

In RSS scheme of things the organizational affiliation comes second,
the primary thing which they instill is the ideological subordination.
Most of those involved in these acts will not have any remorse for
what they did, as like the Al Qaeda variety, they are indoctrinated to
believe that it is nationalism (Hindu in this case, in Al Qaeda
variety it is Islamic nation of course) so what you are doing while
instigating anti minority violence or while planting the bombs is for
the service of your religion!

While superficially at loggerheads the ideological wavelength of RSS
indoctrination is similar to the one used in Pakistani Madrassas for
training Al Qaeda. Here the religion is different paradigms are same.
To deal with such ideologies leading to acts of terror, what is also
needed is to combat their ideological foundations.

--
Issues in Secular Politics
November 2008 II
For publication/circulation etc.

ram.puniyani at gmail.com
www.pluralindia.com