[Compare the following with 'Warning Bell Ringing! Loud and Clear! An Agenda for PM Modi: From His Core (NOT Fringe) Constituency' at <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/india-unity/conversations/messages/55557>. Also see: <http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/jagdish-bhagwati-sings-pm-narendra-modi-praises-rings-rss-warning-bell/>, <http://scroll.in/article/700504/the-one-thing-that-amartya-sen-and-jagdish-bhagwati-agree-on-hindutva-is-dangerous-for-india/> and <http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/bhagwati-not-bhagwat/>. The tension is palpable and self-evident.
Quite contrary to perceptions in certain quarters, economic neo-liberalism and Hindutva are not, repeat not, in perfect alignment. Though, to be sure, the former is ready to wink at the latter as long as its own agenda gets pushed ahead. The moment the latter is seen to be acting as an impediment, the friction sharpens - at least to a limited extent] I/II. http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/fifth-column-crusaders-in-a-time-warp/ OPINION SUNDAY, FEB 22, 2015 Fifth Column: Crusaders in a time warp OPINION SUNDAY, FEB 22, 2015 OpinionColumns Fifth Column: Crusaders in a time warp Hindu unity, Relious freedom RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in Kanpur on Sunday. (Source: Express Photo by Vishal Srivastav) Written by Tavleen Singh | February 22, 2015 3:16 am My contempt for the RSS has been articulated clearly and often in this column. But, because of the Prime Minister's assurance on religious freedom last week I have had occasion to express this contempt on national television more than once in recent days. This has caused a backlash. Virulent blogs have appeared on the Internet charging me with all manner of moral turpitude and personal prejudice, and my Twitter timeline has been poisoned with spiteful, unrepeatable tweets. This gives me yet another chance to reiterate that the vote for Narendra Modi was not a vote for the RSS. It is true that in elections past, the RSS helped the BJP win, but it is not true of the last general election. It is my considered view that if Mohan Bhagwat had been spotted lurking in Modi's shadow, there would have been no full majority. So here is some gratuitous advice. Please Mr Bhagwat, get back into your khaki knickers and return to Nagpur as soon as possible. You have already caused grievous harm to the Modi government, desist from doing any more. There can only be more harm if you continue to hog national headlines, because you are stuck in a time warp. Proof of this comes from something I wrote in April 1999 when the Fifth Column had moved temporarily to India Today. 'Vajpayee's government has taken a long time getting into governance mode... There was the problem of the BJP's lunatic fringe trying to push its agenda. Conversions became more important than governance and swadeshi nearly succeeded in reversing the process of economic liberalisation.' Is any further proof needed that the RSS has remained exactly where it was 15 years ago? This is why it became almost defunct until it crawled slyly on the back of the Modi government. And it will lapse back into obscurity if Modi fails to show that he is a prime minister who can live up to his slogan of 'sabka saath sabka vikas'. So if there are serious thinkers in the inner circle of Mr Bhagwat they must spend some time in deep introspection. Tavleen Singh Had this exercise taken place earlier, the RSS could today have played a constructive role instead of a negative one. It could have discovered that there was always more to India's ancient civilisation than religion, and that as a 'cultural' organisation, it can help recover some of the things that have been lost. Great literature, rich languages, scientific knowledge, precise and spectacular understanding of astronomy and astonishing mathematical achievements. Having said this, let me add that if the RSS does start examining this magnificent heritage, it will need to employ the services of real scholars. So far, whenever it has entered this arena it has gone in with pamphleteers whose main purpose has been to use this heritage as a weapon against Muslims. So time for some fundamental 'parivartan' here. There is no point in attacking Islam in today's age because the repulsive murderers who lead the Islamic State are doing such a good job of it. Between ISIS, Boko Haram and Pakistan's multi-tasking jihadi groups, Islam has become the most reviled religion in the world. It is to India's credit that it remains one of the few countries in the world where Islamism has not so far reared its repugnant head in the way it has in our neighbourhood. Has anyone in Nagpur noticed? My contempt for the RSS comes from having observed this organisation closely for many years. There was a time when I regularly went to the morning 'shakha' in Delhi's middle-class residential colonies. I went with the idea of researching Hindutva's mysteries and discovered from my empirical studies that the average attendee at the RSS version of morning PT (physical training) was usually a fanatic with a gigantic chip on his shoulder. His motivation for waking at dawn to participate in very primitive martial exercises was a deep, deep hatred of Muslims. Many of the people I met over delicious post-shakha Punjabi breakfasts were people whose families had suffered because of Partition and their wounds had never healed. None of the people I met had an understanding of Indian civilisation that went beyond religion. This was more than 30 years ago and the sad truth is that nothing has changed. So it is no surprise that the only thing the RSS has done in the past eight months by way of Hindu revivalism is the farcical 'ghar wapsi' programme. This has done more damage to the Modi government than anything that the Congress party or any other opposition party has come up with. Is this what the RSS wants? Does it want to cripple the Modi government by binding it down in irrelevant things? If so, it is doing very well. Follow Tavleen Singh on Twitter @ tavleen_singh II. http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-editorials/modi-minus-rss-time-for-bjp-to-ditch-social-as-well-as-economic-agenda-of-hindu-right/ Modi minus RSS: Time for BJP to ditch social as well as economic agenda of Hindu right February 20, 2015, 12:08 AM IST TOI Edit in TOI Editorials | Edit Page | TOI Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the national election on a platform of modernity, good governance and economic change -- which is at significant variance with the cultural as well as economic agenda of RSS and affiliated far right organisations. Contradictions were subsumed during the heat and dust of the election campaign by a national clamour for change. But it has become the biggest diversion for Modi`s government in its first few months. This is why his speech reiterating freedom of religion in India this week was so important: it indicated a clear crossing of the Rubicon. That RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat also chose to emphasise in the same week that `our mothers are not baby-making factories' and VHP leaders cautioned their followers to make 'balanced statements' which won't 'trouble the government' suggests concerted messaging. This is a welcome shift. But the internal challenge for Modi is more fundamental. Now some Sangh-related outfits are even joining hands with the Left to agitate against what they call the government's 'anti-poor' and 'anti-farmer' policies. Basically there is a fundamental dichotomy between the promise of a modernist, aspirational India that drew so many new voters to BJP in 2014 and the obscurantist and Luddite notions of society and economy that still typify most of the Sangh. Modi's challenge is that much of BJP's traditional constituency, as opposed to the new voters who joined its electoral juggernaut in the past year, comes from RSS cadres. However, these voters have nowhere to go but BJP. To appease them BJP must not alienate a larger segment of new, aspirational voters who have been won over by Modi's promise of development and modernity. In that sense, to truly deliver on his electoral promises, it is time for the PM and BJP to cut the umbilical cord with the Sangh. Pushing forward on the second wave of economic reforms and ending socially divisive rhetoric require such a move to go beyond the politics of ritual assurances. BJP needs to structurally reduce RSS influence on the party and expand its own cadre independent of the Sangh. A BJP minus the Sangh would have greater political leeway. To shore up its organisational strength and grassroots connect, it would do well to borrow some of the innovative political mobilisation techniques that AAP has pioneered in recent times. This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
