Source: India Today
Courtesy: Mail Today
RSS chief wants Hindutva stamp on anti-graft stir
Poornima Joshi New Delhi, October 7, 2011
Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rss-chief-mohan-bhagwat-wants-hindutva-stamp-on-anti-corruption-stir/1/153951.html
Even if the electoral demise of the Congress had not been the avowed aim of Anna Hazare, his backers in the RSS would have been working towards that aim.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday highlighted the aim unambiguously with a rider - root out the "minority-based" elements in the anti-corruption agitation who opposed the use of nationalist symbols such as Bharat Mata and Vande Mataram.
The RSS chief's Dussehra speech is considered an articulation of the ideological framework of the saffron joint family's political and social activities. This year, while summing up the political situation, Bhagwat focused on the anti-corruption movements across the country.
Though he refrained from naming the movements - Anna Hazare's fast, Ramdev's campaign against black money, L.K. Advani's rath yatra and the yatras by Rajnath Singh and Kalraj Mishra in Uttar Pradesh - the RSS chief was categorical in instructing his cadre about how to shape the movement in the Hindutva mould.
He gave a call for unity among all the groups associated with the anti-corruption agitation and warned against those who were objecting to the symbols of Bharat Mata and Vande Mataram being used.
"The RSS volunteers are already active in all movements against corruption without craving for their own position and credit… We should stay clear from power groups which have dubious backgrounds and are impatiently credit-hungry. Rejection of symbols of patriotism such as Vande Mataram and Bharat Mata and gimmicks to gain cheap popularity can never be tolerated in any national movement," Bhagwat said.
"It is necessary to keep away from those tendencies and forces existing in the socalled minorities that pander to the narrow, fanatic and separatist ideas. We will have to take care that persons and tendencies that maintain total transparency, especially in the matter of money and resources, are on board. Otherwise, taking advantage of these weaknesses, the elements that oppose the movement can create an atmosphere of distrust and calumny," he added.
The RSS chief said while Hazare managed to get Parliament to bow to his demands, the target was far from achieved. He said all those involved in corruption movement have to sink in their differences to achieve the aim - a change in the government and jail term for "known and unknown bigwigs", clearly in the present establishment.
Bhagwat was emphatic that a change in the government was a pre-requisite for a change in society. He stressed on "pure character" and "good and moral conduct" for rebuilding the Indian society.
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