The Modi Government, instead of being a ‘Government of the people, by the people, for the people,’ is proving to be a ‘Government of the RSS, by the RSS and for the RSS.’

Recently, the country has witnessed the Prime Ministers and top Ministers of the elected Government of India reporting meekly to an unconstitutional, communal fascist authority – the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in a secretive session.

This summit proves that the Sangh leaders (Bhagwat, Togadia, and others) that declare India to be a Hindu Nation and indulge in hate speech against Muslims, Christians, Dalits and women, are not ‘fringe elements’ – they are the bosses of the Modi Government.

Reportedly, at the ‘coordination meet’ of the Modi Government with the RSS, the Culture Minister in the Modi Cabinet, Mahesh Sharma pledged to rid India’s educational and cultural institutions of ‘cultural pollution.’ Later, the Culture Minister elaborated on what he meant by ‘cultural pollution.’ The Minister said that the Gita and Ramayana ‘reflect India’s soul’ and must be taught in schools, while the Quran and the Bible are mere religious texts which are “not central to the soul of India.” He declared that Hindi is India’s “national language” and should be made compulsory in all Indian schools. According to him, “Indian culture” is defined by “women of three generations cooking in the same kitchen” and called for “protecting Indian culture” from pollution by “Western culture.” He also supported the ban on meat imposed by several BJP State Governments during the Jain festival. The Minister claimed that his Government had a mandate for saffronization because “125 crore Indians had voted for the Modi Government knowing what is RSS, what is BJP.” And he supported the renaming of Aurangzeb Road after APJ Abdul Kalam, saying that “Kalam was a great nationalist in spite of being a Muslim.”

In other words, the Modi Government has made it clear that it shares the same view of ‘Indian culture’ that the RSS does. It equates ‘Indian culture’ with Hindu upper caste culture, Hindi language, Sanskrit, vegetarian diet, Hindu religious texts, and the Hindu joint family and specifically the domestic roles defined for women in such families. In this RSS vision of India, a Muslim or Christian can be an Indian citizen only ‘in spite of’ his/her religious identity; languages other than Sanskrit and Hindi cannot be ‘national’ languages; vegetarian diet of the tiny upper caste minority will be imposed on the vast majority of non-vegetarians; and women’s freedom will be branded as ‘Western culture’. And while the Bible and Quran are seen as representatives of only their respective religions, the Hindu religious texts will be taught as representative of ‘Indian ideology’ and ‘Indian culture.’

What the Culture Minister left unsaid is the grim truth of what is being done to voices that challenge this bigoted model of ‘Indian culture.’ People like Prof Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare are killed for raising their voice against Hindutva bigots and conmen, writer MM Basheer is prevented from writing his version of the Ramayana, Hindutva goons use force to take AK Ramanujan’s essay on the many interpretations of the Ramayana off University syllabi, films ranging from documentaries on communal violence to a popular film like PK are threatened with bans or vandalism, saffron vigilante groups mete out violence to women wearing jeans, inter-faith couples in public places or couples celebrating Valentine’s Day.

Not long ago, VHP leader Pravin Togadia, one of the men to whom the Modi Government reported at the ‘coordination meet’ convened by the RSS, demanded that a law be enacted to criminalise any Muslim who has more than two children.

The Agriculture Minister in the Modi Cabinet has called for ‘Yogic farming’ to ‘increase potency of seeds by positive thinking.’ The RSS chief recently said that those Hindu values that “do not conform to scientific standards” should be discarded; but the problem is that the RSS claims various kinds of unscientific and obscurantist ideas to be ‘scientific.’ For instance the RSS ideologues claim that the figure of Ganesha proves that India invented plastic surgery, or that the myth of the Pushpak Viman proves that India invented aviation! Similarly, the Hindutva ideologues tend to proffer ‘scientific’ apologias for casteism and patriarchy. The manner in which HIndutva outfits have issued death threats to rationalists shows the hatred they have for science and rationality.

The Government is defending its ‘coordination meeting’ with the RSS by claiming that the RSS is a ‘civil society organization.’ The truth is that the RSS and its hydra-headed outfits are directly implicated in a wide range of communal pogroms and bomb blasts, assassinations of intellectuals and activists, caste massacres and violence against women’s freedoms.

In the Lok Sabha election campaign, Modi sought votes based on a promise of ‘development’ and ‘acche din’ (good times). He did not state that he would be taking his orders from the RSS, or that his Government would be interfering in kitchens and classrooms. The Modi Government certainly cannot claim any mandate for their unconstitutional agenda of imposing the narrow and bigoted RSS vision of India on the whole country.

The RSS has come out onto the stage from behind the curtains and is now openly showing that it holds the reins of the Modi Government in its hands. Meanwhile, enthusiasm and aggression with which Modi ministers are advancing the RSS agenda stands in stark contrast to the utter abdication of their actual ministerial responsibilities.

The open and brazen RSS display of authority over the Modi Government belies the illusions of the liberal right-wing ideologues who claimed that Modi would not toe the RSS line and would only deliver ‘development’. The fact is that both the corporates and the RSS see the Government as their tool and expect it to implement their agendas speedily and faithfully. The RSS is also in full cooperation with the pro-corporate agenda of the Government, as was seen by the manner in which the BMS withdrew from the workers’ All India General Strike. The corporate agenda has faced robust resistance and even won victories; the RSS agenda will also be resisted tooth and nail.