RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has only reiterated a stand when he addressed the organisation’s centenary event in Bengaluru – that the RSS is rooted in nationalism and not Brahminism. Famously, the RSS “sees all Hindus as one,” and is willing to accommodate others too into its fold on condition that they “swear allegiance to Bharat Mata and do not subscribe to their religious identity.” This is a periodic reaffirmation of the stand that it has been taking for long. RSS, however, is widely seen as an organisation of the Brahmins – who constitute less than five per cent of the population – due mainly to the fact that it has been led from the front by Brahmins, other than for a short term by Rajender Singh, a Thakur, in the late 1990s. The base of the RSS is in Nagpur, where physician Keshav Hegdewar, a Brahmin, founded it in 1925. The Hindu ethos it carries is alien to the large majority of the other laid-back, yet numerically large communities who are bracketed as Hindus yet are discriminated against within the higher echelons of the religion. Herein lies the crux of the issue. In order to be a mass-based entity, the RSS would reach nowhere if it professes an ‘exclusivity’ based on its Brahmin aura. More so in a democracy like India. The RSS think-tanks cleverly used the Ram Temple issue in Ayodhya to whip up collective Hindu sentiments in the 1990s, to successfully do political engineering and grab power from the Congress party. The pantheon of gods and goddesses in the Hindu religion belong to all segments of the wider religious order. Hence, the RSS skilfully hoisted the Ram temple “kamandal” issue to neutralize the surge of the backward communities in the political arena in the Hindi belt after VP Singh as prime minister exploded the “Mandal” bomb.
The Congress, after Indira Gandhi, had less-conditioned leaderships even in the form of Rajiv Gandhi. He was no politician when he took charge as general secretary of the party and later succeeded his mother as PM. Narasimha Rao and Sonia Gandhi had lesser understanding of the people’s psyche in the Hindi belt. All these helped the RSS outwit the legendary Congress establishment. It is imperative for the RSS to keep all Hindus in one basket, and get backing from others too where possible – as in the north-east, Kashmir, Goa and Kerala. The camouflaging of the Hindutva in the Bharat Mata façade is seen by many as no more than a ploy to retain political power, without which it would be difficult for the RSS to retain its aura. Politics and religion are a lethal mix. More so in a secular nation like India where different religions coexist like a colourful mosaic. The Congress party had a way of accommodating all. Its decimation in a wider swathe of the political arena was due to its leadership’s lack of alertness. The RSS seized the opportunity. Those leading the Modi administration from behind are a mass of RSS deputies that frame policies and dictate the course of governance.
