The Hindu : Sangh Parivar in Government

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 14, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Sangh Parivar in Government

By C. P. Bhambhri

The Vajpayee Government has consolidated the forces of Hindutva by using state power during its tenure of five years.

THE BJP recently celebrated its so-called successful governance for five years from March 19, 1998, to March 19, 2003. The party leadership congratulated itself on managing a non-Congress coalition for five years. The BJP-led Government at the Centre has successfully implemented the agenda of Hindutva as concretised by the Sangh Parivar. And none of its 22 coalition partners has made even a faint noise to stop the march of Hindutva.

For five years, the various outfits of the Sangh Parivar, under the protective umbrella of the Vajpayee Government, have kept the Ayodhya pot boiling. The Parivar itself constructed the issue and created artificial atmosphere of pressure on the Centre to resolve the dispute. That the BJP-in-Government and the Parivar are working together on the issue is evident from the daily actions of the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, the RSS, the `sants' and the MPs and the Ministers. The Parivar brought "political sants" on February 24, 2003, in a `procession' to gherao Parliament over the Ram temple dispute. The Centre jumped into the fray and decided to request the Supreme Court, as desired by the Parivar, to allow construction of a temple on the `undisputed' Ayodhya land. While replying to the motion of thanks to the President's address in March, Mr. Vajpayee said in the Rajya Sabha that "no political motive" should be attributed to the BJP-led Government asking the Supreme Court to vacate the stay on all "religious activities on the undisputed land at Ayodhya". The Centre told the Bench that it wanted to address the aspirations of the community that wanted to use the "undisputed land" for "religious purposes".

The cat is out of the bag. The Vajpayee Government, along with the large RSS family, wants to "positively respond to the aspirations of the Hindu majority community" as it sees itself as the protector and defender of Hindus only. The façade that the "Ram temple movement" was launched by the VHP, or the Bajrang Dal or the Sant Samaj was further exposed when on March 7, 2003, the RSS general secretary, Mohan Bhagwat, told the Pratinidhi Sabha at Nagpur: "It appears that time is fast approaching for us to once again become active in the mandir (temple) movement.'' Loyal swayamsevaks are in Government to fulfil the agenda of the "Hindu rashtra".

The agenda of "cultural nationalism", which means "one culture, one country, one nation'', is the real Sangh Parivar ideology and the BJP Lok Sabha election manifestos of 1996 and 1998 make it incumbent for the party to implement it. The manifesto, under the caption "our national identity, cultural nationalism'', states "it is with such integrative ideas in mind that the BJP joined the Ram Janmabhoomi movement". Some statements of the BJP leaders would substantiate that Hindutva has been on the march during the five years of the Vajpayee Government at the Centre.

On the Gujarat incidents, Mr. Vajpayee and his deputy, L.K. Advani, made many communal statements. While addressing the BJP Parliamentary party on December 18, 2002, they said that the Godhra killings "were not adequately condemned by the Muslim community". Is Mr. Vajpayee, who observed that "Muslim leaders did not condemn the Godhra carnage with the force it deserved", the Prime Minister of India or of the Hindus? And Mr. Advani said: "We must not be ashamed of our ideology" i.e. of Hindutva and cultural nationalism, a statement he reiterated at the BJP national executive on April 4 and 5 at Indore.

At the same meet, Venkaiah Naidu, BJP president, said "cultural nationalism is our life-line and Hindutva is the soul of India" and this could be achieved by facilitating the construction of Ram temple and by bringing in national legislations against cow slaughter and by banning "conversions" as done by the Narendra Modi Government. The Freedom of Religion Bill of Gujarat lays down that "any conversion to any religion will have to be permitted by the District Magistrate". The bureaucracy's conduct or misconduct during the Gujarat violence under the Modi Government needs no comment. The civil service openly behaved as the BJP service.

The Sangh Parivar's definition of "cultural nationalism" does violence to the definition of India as given by the Constitution, which is a fundamental framework for the governance of our country.

India is a multicultural, multi-lingual, multi-religious, plural, secular, democratic and federal country where social diversity has been given a legal space to celebrate its existence. This is the reason the Vajpayee Government wanted the Constitution reviewed. The BJP and the Sangh Parivar are fundamentally opposed to the philosophy of a liberal, pluralist and democratic Constitution. The `idea of India' as enshrined in the Constitution is not acceptable to the RSS family because its `idea of India' is constructed on the basis of demonising Muslim and Christian minorities for whom "majority's goodwill is vital" as stated by the RSS on March 26, 2002. The Constitution guarantees "equal rights of citizenship", while the Parivar considers "minorities" as "second class citizens" in Hindu India. Hence, this Constitution should be reviewed.

The real levers of power at the Centre are with the RSS faithful and the RSS is spreading its educational/cultural network by establishing Shishu Niketans and Vanvasi Kalyan Kendras or Ekal Vidhyalayas as Friends of Tribal Society. The BJP is a party with a "difference" because it has a distinct ideology of Hindutva. For the promotion of its brand of Hindu culture, the Ministries of Education, Information and Broadcasting, and Culture have to be in its firm control. It is not without reason that Murli Manohar Joshi is at the helm of affairs in the field of "culture" and Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani are in full control of the state apparatus which is essential for the implementation of every programme of the RSS family.

The Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the PMO are in full control of every institution of governance, including the powerful bureaucracy, and they have immense capacity to bend all these institutions for the service of the Hindu rashtra. The Vajpayee Government has appointed RSS stalwarts such as Sunder Singh Bhandari, Vishnu Kant Shastri, Bhai Mahavir, K. R. Malkani and Suraj Bhan as State Governors, and Bhairon Singh Shekhwat as Vice-President exercises great influence and informal powers to guide the practitioners of Hindu rashtra while sitting within the official house.

Since `culture' is the main ideological plank of the Parivar, the Government does not take any risk even with the liberals. M. V. Kamath has been appointed Chairman of the Prasar Bharati Board for five years and his book `A Reporter at Large' contains a mine of information for the demonising of Muslim and Christian communities.

Finally, a section of the media projected a so-called autonomy of the swayamsevaks like Mr. Vajpayee or Mr. Advani or Mr. Joshi as Ministers of the NDA Government. Such a Machiavellian obfuscation suited the loyal Ministers of the Parivar but the real truth came out from the Parivar itself. On March 10, 2003, Mr. Bhagwat himself observed that "differences within the Sangh Parivar are... because these organisations function as separate entities in different spheres." And that "the only common factor is that they have a large number of swayamsevaks in various capacities".

The swayamsevaks in the Vajpayee Government have to be controlled by "extra-constitutional authority" of the RSS contact men with the Government such as K. S. Sudarashan and now joint general secretary, Madan Das Devi. The Vajpayee Government has consolidated the forces of Hindutva by using state power during its tenure of five years.

(The writer is former Dean, School of Social Sciences, JNU.)

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