When it comes to the policies of the Modi government, there exists a crisis of confidence on multiple fronts. For instance, the intent behind the privatization of Sainik Schools. The Congress party has sought withdrawal of the decision after it noticed that over 60 per cent of the private Sainik Schools have been launched by the BJP-RSS-linked entities. Notably, the minorities always have their misgivings about the RSS drills, in military mode, against an invisible ‘enemy’. For the RSS, the enemy is domestically the Muslims just as the nations like Pakistan are for the nation and, by extension, to the Hindutva forces. In a nation where communities co-exist, questions often arose as to why the RSS is bent on having such ‘armed’ drills when the police and security forces are already taking care of law and order and related problems. True, the RSS and its affiliates have, alongside their religious obsessions, engaged in social and community service. The RSS, no doubt, projects itself as a volunteer force. But, there’s more than what meets the eye.
The 10 years of the Modi rule has been a period of massive growth to the RSS that propped him up as Prime Minister. Having functioned as an RSS pracharak, Modi is duty-bound to promote this ideology and its obsessions. Many are convinced that it’s the RSS that runs the nation behind the scenes. The RSS is guided by a spirit of nation-building based on its Hindutva concept. This splits the society vertically, which is the difference between the BJP and the Congress. The Congress sees the people as a unified whole and promotes a secular ideology that appealed to a wider spectrum of the well-informed. The undoing for the Congress was its corrupt core, which floored it in 2014. It is a moot point whether the Congress can ever take on the BJP or the Hindutva forces with a renewed vigour.
The present condition suits the BJP and the RSS to push their agenda on several ‘obscurantist’ fronts. The privatization of the system of Sainik Schools, a well-reputed entity, may be viewed as part of the RSS’ obsession to strengthen a parallel militant cadre even as education is materially different from military training. What’s done might not be undone under pressure from the Congress. This might be a fait accompli. Notably, what marked out the Modi government’s 10 years is its failure to address several of the nation’s serious ills. Modi slept over matters that were not part of the limited RSS agenda. Corruption, for instance, as is evident also from the near total paralysis and inaction of the ED and other central investigating agencies, in the past 10 years.
