RSS plays on majority-as-victim card
PTI
Volunteers at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh shakha in Bhopal. File photo
Like the 80s, the theme of Muslim ‘appeasement’ will dominate Sangh narrative
At the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Mahal, the
second floor is home to a museum. Images of past Sarsanghchalaks, photos
of pracharaks who set up Sangh units in various States, and the various
gifts and citations received by the organisation in its 88-year history
adorn the walls.
Sadanand Shirdale is looking around, absorbing the past of his
organisation. As we sit for a cup of tea on the ground floor of the HQ,
the former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Pune district, secretary says
Narendra Modi will “change the system.”
When asked to elaborate, he says the current system is geared to benefit
the “so-called minorities.” “Appeasement will end when we come to
power. In Gujarat, there is no Muslim MLA. That is how it should be.”
And how would Muslims react if such a system was replicated?
Mr. Shirdale replied, “They can’t all go to Pakistan. They should also
develop. But the key question is they should be loyal to India, not
another country.”
The direct insinuation that the primary loyalty of minorities is not to
India; the suggestion that the government works only for them to protect
‘vote-banks’; and the subtle hint that Hindus, despite being a
majority, suffer in India, is the overwhelming strain in the RSS
narrative at present. From the Sarsanghchalak in his Dussehra speech, to
workers in and around Muzaffarnagar as riots spread, the refrain is the
same.
Manmohan Vaidya is the RSS media relations in-charge. He narrates a list
of policies and actions of the Centre, which are categorised as
instances of “appeasement.”
“Why did the Home Minister write a letter on innocent Muslims? Look at
the reactions of Congress leaders to Batla House and Azamgarh. Despite
the Constitution prohibiting reservations on religious lines, they are
trying to introduce it. They are giving salaries to Imams. In Kerala,
Islamic banks are being opened. The Communal Violence Bill is
anti-Hindu. How can it be said that they have first rights over national
resources?”
Mr. Vaidya continues his complaints, and claims that schemes introduced
after the Sachar committee recommendations are “dividing people.” He
then narrates a story. “Imagine two girls in a village. A Muslim girl
gets a cycle, but the Hindu girl does not get it. She asks her mother,
who explains that she is not entitled to it because she is not a
Muslim.” After a dramatic pause, he continues, “The daughter asks her
mother if that is the case, why they cannot become Muslims? The mother
is shocked, and sells her jewellery to buy a cycle.”
Campaign
It is with stories like these, and grievances articulated to project a
narrative of how Hindus are getting a raw deal, that Sangh pracharaks
and BJP workers will set out to convince voters in the run-up to 2014.
Party workers say candidly that it does not matter whether Mr. Modi
raises it from a public platform — the message on the ground is
spreading.
A senior BJP leader in the city told The Hindu, “Look we know we
won’t get Muslim votes. The calculation is Muslims will consolidate by
an additional two or three percent to counter Modi. But there will be
Hindu consolidation with upper castes and OBCs coming together.” This
will happen, he said, because they will be united by the anger and
“suffocation” against “government policies towards minorities.”
It is precisely to create and channel this anger that the Sangh has
returned to the plank which helped spread the Hindutva political project
in the 80s and early 90s — the theme of “pseudo-secularism” and
“appeasement.”
