Both RSS and its chief Mohan Bhagwat have added importance in recent times. They have done a political engineering which proved to be successful and put the Grand Old Party, the Congress, on the defensive after long years of the tricolour rule mostly under successive generations of the Nehru dynasty. His comments at the launch of a book on Mahatma Gandhi were, thus, more noteworthy. Among his observations was that “a Hindu is an automatic patriot and a Hindu will never be anti-India.”
A problem with the RSS has perhaps been its over-emphasis on religion, and this often at the cost of the other major aspects of public life. Most RSS leaders, when they set out, head straight to the subject of religion. This perhaps is the nationalist organisation’s flaw as well.
India is overwhelmingly Hindu and there is no serious threat to it from any of the minority communities other than in relation to the Kashmir-related militant activities, which too targeted government entities rather than non-Muslims as such. Bombs exploded by terrorists and militants in cities or elsewhere also killed hapless people irrespective of their religions. Such cases have come down across India in recent years and thankfully also due to support from Muslim communities themselves in alerting cops on dangerous movements of suspected militants.
On the other hand, fact is also that a kind of militancy is evident in the Hindu ranks too. The Modi government seems exerting control on such elements too in order to keep up the law and order situation. But, the Ahmedabad riots are still in everyone’s minds, though it was a follow-up to the Godhra train burning incident. Overall, the point to note is that there are trouble-makers in every society.
There was a time, recently, when the RSS chief stated that all people born and living in India are “Hindus” irrespective of whether or not they are part of the religion. This time too, he has stated that “unity in diversity is our sentiment and not just a matter of policy.” This, he said, is the fundamental of Indian thought.” Once this is accepted and appreciated, the issue is settled.
Former prime minister, late PV Narasimha Rao, stated when he first took over as prime minister, that “the best way to exist in India is to co-exist.” India is a mosaic of cultures, religions, races, languages, castes, creeds, and therein lies its beauty. It must be preserved at all costs. The collective force of all these, acting in positive ways, can take the nation to great heights.