Under the Prime Ministership of Atal Behari Vajpayee, a sustained effort was on to distance the RSS from the BJP which is his political arm. Policies of the previous NDA government chalked out by the BJP were divorced from RSS ideology. Narendra Modi’s NDA government was also during his first year steered on apparently secular lines. But in the past few weeks, the RSS has been voluble with Mohan Bhagwat, Naresh Sharma and Smriti Irani launching a crusade against westernisation and western knowledge. Use of the term ‘cultural cleansing’ upset rationalists. RSS ambivalence, however came to the fore at the centenary celebrations of it’s ideologue, Deendayal Upadhyay. Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh advocated debate and said that irrespective of how many ideologies there were showing difference of opinion, there should be debate on them. Democracy thrives on dissent and debate. Speaker, Sunita Mahajan believed that a strong opposition was a necessity in democracy.
Union Minister for Culture, Mahesh Sharma denied that there was a move to saffronise India and said that his organisation respected Jawaharlal Nehru who contributed to the freedom struggle and the making of modern India. Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley said that after independence there was a political party(INC) and a Prime Minister(Nehru) who had a tall political stature. In view of the worldwide ascendancy of Communism, Nehru’s exceptional personality alone could create a parallel thought, he said. All this marks a healthy departure from ideological diktats. Few would question that RSS ideology should figure a free debate but that it should not demand coercive conformity.
