Saturday, July 17, 2010

RSS : NEEDED GREATER MATURITY

B.RAMAN

The volunteers of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), who protested outside the offices of the "Headlines Today" TV channel on July 16,2010, did not bring credit to the organisation. They were protesting against a programme telecast by the channel the previous day regarding the alleged role of some elements associated with the RSS in connection with acts of reprisal terrorism against Muslims and their places of worship. Individual members of the Hindu community have been arrested in connection with these attacks on some sections of the Muslim community and their places of worship.

2. The case is still under investigation. While the evidence available so far, as reported in the media, points towards the involvement of some members of the Hindu community suspected to be sympathetic to the RSS ideology and even some cadres of the RSS, it does not show the involvement of the RSS as an organisation in any of these incidents. Allegations of saffron terrorism or RSS-inspired terrorism are uncalled for.

3. At the same time, it is necessary for the RSS to take note of these allegations, do an in-house enquiry, weed out anyone suspected of complicity with the arrested elements and keep the public informed of the action taken by it. The RSS has thousands of dedicated cadres and sympathisers in India as well as abroad, who are doing very good work for the preservation of the Hindu religion in its homeland, where it is constantly under attack from different directions in the name of so-called secularism. The dedicated followers of the RSS in India and abroad have been in the forefront of those contributing to the welfare of the tribals in the Maoist-affected areas in Central India. When other Hindu organisations hesitate to go into the insecure tribal areas, the brave and dedicated cadres of the RSS have been going unmindful of threats to their security and helping the tribals.

4. They have also been in the forefront of those countering often foreign-funded attempts to convert large numbers of Hindus by taking advantage of feelings of anger in the deprived sections of the Hindu community in an attempt to reduce the number of Hindus in their homeland. They have also been highlighting the threatened changes in the demographic composition of sensitive areas of the country, particularly in the North-East, due to large-scale illegal immigration.

5. The Hindu religion needs a dedicated, articulate and boldly active organisation like the RSS to preserve its primacy in its homeland. It would be unfortunate if the continued capability of the RSS to serve the cause of the Hindu religion were to be affected by the alleged involvement of some persons associated with it in acts of anti-Muslim terrorism and in undemocratic and violent ways of protest as one saw outside the offices of Headlines Today.

6. Such instances will provide a handle to those in India and abroad, who are trying to project the RSS as a Hindu extremist organisation in order to weaken its service in the cause of the Hindus.

7. This may kindly be read in continuation of my article of June 18,2010, titled "Anti-Muslim Reprisal Terrorism----An Update" available at -http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers39%5Cpaper3866.html

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-Mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The RSS has stated it will disown anybody who is involved in voilence. It is RSS policy to never as an organization instigate violence. So I do not see a point in this posting.

There will always be some criminal elements in a large oranization like the RSS. Every time a secular person is involved in violence, nobody calls for branding the congress as a terror outfit. So why this double standard?

A good example is the recent case of chopping of the hands of a kerala lecturer. There is talk that an islamic group sympathetic to the congress was involved. So why is there no cry for weeding out the criminal elements in the congress.

Mr. Raman: You are giving too much importance to the media. This issue is a media manufactured issue. The media in India ia totally corrupt. These days everyone know this. By providing more spotlight on a media manufactured issue, you will lose credibility.

Vijay said...

excellent article Ramanji. Let me point out that the recent incident of vandalism of AAj Tak ofice in Delhi has more elements that what the media is letting on.
These are testing times for the RSS, but we have to plod on. Critical mass will be attained soon.

B Shantanu said...

Raman-ji,
You and your readers may find this post I just published relevant/useful:

Exploding the Myth of “Hindutva Terror”
http://satyameva-jayate.org/2010/07/19/myth-of-hindutva-terror/

Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!
Shantanu @ http://www.facebook.com/SatyamevaJayate.FanPage

Unknown said...

@raman,
1) Your paper at http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers39%5Cpaper3866.html gives a clear idea of what we the fence sitting hindus feel about our own community. By fence sitting I mean hindus who have come to respect RSS over the years and see the bankruptcy of the Commie+Pseudo Secular crowd. For us to be able to contribute anything to RSS we have to be able to believe that we won't be cutting our own roots by supporting RSS. RSS is under no obligation to listen to our needs but by not listening it would merely be repeating on a saffron canvas what has been happening here for last 1400 years, this time with some baba doing the loot.

2) Your advise however about the Media is not something that can be taken up easily. Can the media tell where it got the tapes? What was the Quid Pro Quo? What is the spin doctoring that they did? Why did they do this Spin? Flighted spin par chakka padna shows the skills of the batsman not is incompetence.

Unknown said...

On a serious note, the so called Hindu Terror may be analyzed differently. With the advent of BJP and so called Sangh Parivar, main stream parties in India has, knowingly or unknowingly, pushed everything connected to Hindu religion to the account of Sangh Parivar. This should not have been happened. As we are all aware, vast majority of Hindus are not subscribing the ideology of Sangh Parivar. They are more connected to other steams of Hindu religious sculpt, for example Gadhiji's concept of Ram is more acceptable than Sangh Parivar’s intention of whipping up passions. However most, if not all, of the Hindus are concerned about the constant attack of many political parties, media and other organizations against Hinduism and the “intolerance” of political parties particularly of Congress and its leaders against anything connected to Hinduism force the gullible Hindus to look at Sangh Parivar as a defender of faith. This can be better explained in the context of active promotion of anti-Hindu activities by many political leaders in the Country. This is experienced when Karunanidhi ridiculed Ram and late YSR’s family promotes evangelical activities in Andhra (YSR’s son in law run a leading Evangelical Organization in India). This paves way for opportunity for Sangh Parivar to exploit the feelings of Hindus. Situation in India may dramatically change when a Hindu terrorist is caught by police or get killed in an encounter with Police. This is the real danger that all need to be worried. Hindu terrorist activities, if going forward will alter the delicate social fabric in this country and has the potential of damaging the edifice on which India is built. Responsible political parties shall come out with practical solutions so as to address the "hurt" feelings of Hindus in India rather than competing amongst themselves thereby pushing gullible Hindus to the trap laid by certain Hindu organizations. It is time for India to consider to ban religious extremism by all parties-Hindus, Christians and Muslims. If we do not address this now, the price to be paid will be much higher in future.

Nynol said...

Hinduism is unlike other religions. There is no power centre inside it like a pope or a mullah figure. The absence of such an authority is a pro as well as a con. It separates the temple from the state.

The christians and the muslims have an appointed authority but they still haven't been able to wipe out caste-ism prevalent in their community.

The RSS needs to be here to weed out the ill's of hindu society. It is the only hindu organisation that is present in many parts of india.

Nynol said...

Regarding the so called "secular" news channels of india. They need to kicked out asap. Maybe once BJP comes to power, they'll formulate the required changes to send HT, rajdeep sardesai company and prannoy roy company packing into the woods.

Saffron terror my foot. Do they have the balls to use "green terror" as headlines? Once congress goes, i hope they are smart enough to relocate themselves to another country.

ambi said...

Broadway said...
Regarding the so called "secular" news channels of india. They need to kicked out asap. Maybe once BJP comes to power, they'll formulate the required changes to send HT, rajdeep sardesai company and prannoy roy company packing into the woods.

Saffron terror my foot. Do they have the balls to use "green terror" as headlines? Once congress goes, i hope they are smart enough to relocate themselves to another country.

July 19, 2010 12:07 AM

Tathastu.

PrabhuG said...

It's have been RSS policy of planning terror and then disowning it(We lost bapu in the hands of hindu fanatics).I really had doubt what RSS is about,religious organization,a nationalist movement, fascist sect(promotes ram alone).I beleive these people just want to stroke people emotions to make money.Abraham religions loot people with a good organization and hindus allow every other person to loot in the name of religion

Nynol said...

So what about bapu?

The guy who asks his subjects to look the other way and ignore evil? To convert the mass to an army of living dead? To be a coward?

The guy whose philosophy is to suffer at the hands of the oppressor without any retaliation, hoping that the oppressor would feel pity for you and stop?

That's his super philosophy? That one can easily overpower the other and there will be peace and calm?

Bapu has hijacked this entire country. If anyone is against bapu, then he automatically becomes against india.