A sudden showering of praise on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh by Congress veteran Digvijay Singh has sparked a major debate within the political spectrum. Ideologically, the Congress and the RSS that promotes the BJP are poles apart. It’s rather unusual for a Congress leader to praise the RSS, also as the two sides always maintained a strong ideological divide. The RSS had the last laugh when its offspring, the BJP, wrested power from the Congress in the 1990s, by taking advantage of the Babri Masjid issue. The Congress philosophy is different. In true Gandhian spirit, it reaches out to all Indian communities. Mahatma Gandhi was shot down shortly after Independence by Nathuram Godse, who owed his allegiance to the Hindutva forces. Today, these forces in power are seeking to uproot the legacy of the Mahatma.
Digvijay Singh, a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, has been holding power at the behest of the Congress for the past over 50 years, and continues to do so as a Rajya Sabha MP. His praise of the RSS at perhaps the most-inappropriate hour for the Congress is pregnant with meaning. His take is that the RSS does well by grooming leaders from grassroots level to exalted positions in power, as in the case of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. What he fails to see is that the Congress party has done this as well in several cases though the posts of PM and party chief remained with the Nehru-Gandhi family. What should not go unnoticed is that the Congress of today is only a breakaway faction of the Indian National Congress; and it was known for a period as the Congress (Indira). The parent party ended in oblivion. Having been part of this breakaway group for long, Singh and the rest of the leaders of this entity – which eventually established itself as the real Congress – cannot feign ignorance of this ‘family’ link. Even today, the family is the glue that keeps the party erect. However, Singh at his advanced age of 78 finds the grass on the other side green. The Congress party is passing through critical times. The BJP has somewhat ravaged it in several states, while regional parties reign supreme in other states.
A revival for the Congress would involve a hard struggle ahead. Unity, in this context, is of prime importance. Large segments of the population are not enthused by the pro-religious tone that the BJP and its governments adopt. All hope is not lost for the Opposition. Prime Minister Modi is increasingly being on the defensive and losing ‘friends’ of a kind that had hailed him day and night. On the electoral front too, the 2024 parliament polls did not accord him and his NDA a majority. The Bihar polls were won by the BJP-JDU alliance by the cash gift magic, not by these parties’ popularity. India requires a strong opposition. Integral to this concept is the presence of a strong Congress party. However, the praise” of the RSS by a prominent leader like Digvijay Singh would only help undercut the strengths of the Congress and the Gandhian philosophy.
