69th Birth Anniversary Of Constitution
RSS –a Threat to Democracy
Shamsul Islam
The history is replete with
instances when the democratic
polities have been destroyed not by the foreign enemies but inimical forces from within, camouflaged as saviours. Germany's take-over by the Nazi Party led by Hitler and Italy by the Fascist Party led by Mussolini are the living examples of this trend. The Indian polity governed by a democratic-secular constitution passed by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949 seems to be in process of being captured by RSS and its appendages which rule India today. This lot has no hesitation in, unabashedly, declaring that they are in power to convert present Indian constitutional system into a Hindutva exclusionary state. This sinister Hindutva project is declared to be their object despite the fact that these rulers who are mostly cadres of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) took oath to uphold a democratic-secular constitution.
Blue-eyed boy of both RSS and Prime Minister Modi, a minister in latter's cabinet, Anantkumar Hegde addressing an event organised by the Brahman Yuva Parishad in Koppal district of Karnataka declared "We are here to change the Constitution"[1] and decried those who believe in secularism as "people without parentage". Perhaps people have forgotten how many times present RSS boss, Mohan Bhagwat like his predecessors declared India to be a Hindu nation where Hindutva politics will rule.
There is no hidden agenda so far as undoing democratic-secular India is concerned. It is as old as the constitution of India. The Constituent Assembly of India ratified the constitution on November 26, 1949, RSS was not happy. Its organ, ORGANISER in an editorial (The Constitution) on November 30, 1949, complained:
"The worst about the new constitution is that there is nothing Bhartiya about it. The drafters of the Constitution have incorporated in it elements of British, American, Canadian, Swiss, and sundry other constitutions. But there is no trace of ancient Bhartiya constitutional laws, institutions, nomenclature and phraseology in it… in our New Constitution there is no mention of the unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat. Manu's Laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing".
The RSS continued vigorously its campaign for the enforcement of Manu's Codes in India. Sankar Subba Aiyar, a retired High Court Judge wrote ('Manu Rules Our Hearts') in the same RSS organ on February 6, 1950,
"Even though Dr Ambedkar is reported to have recently stated in Bombay that the days of Manu are ended it is nevertheless a fact that the daily lives of Hindus are even at the present day affected by the principles and injunctions contained in the Manu Smrithi and other Smrithis. Even an unorthodox Hindu feels himself bound at least in some matters by the rules contained in the Smrithis and he feels powerless to give up altogether his adherence to them."
How loyal the RSS is to the Constitution of India can be known by the following statement of MS Golwalkar which is being reproduced from Bunch of Thoughts which is not only selection of the writings of Golwalkar but also a Bible for the RSS cadres:
"Our Constitution too is just a cumbersome and heterogeneous piecing together of various articles from various Constitutions of Western countries. It has absolutely nothing which can be called our own. Is there a single word of reference in its guiding principles as to what our national mission is and what our keynote in life is?"[2]
The RSS English mouthpiece ORGANISER demeaning the choice of the National Flag just on the eve of Independence (14 August 1947) wrote:
"The people who have come to power by the kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour but it never be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country."
Golwalkar while delivering a speech before the 1350 top level cadres of the RSS at RSS headquarters, Resham Bagh in 1940 declared:
"RSS inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land". [MS Golwalkar, Shri Guruji Samagar Darshan (collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), vol. 1, Bhartiya Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, p. 11.]
When the Constituent Assembly adopted adult franchise for future elections, RSS was not happy and declared it as a kind of threat to political stability,
"realizing the inertia of the people to think out political issues and vote intelligently, we cannot be over-optimistic about universal adult franchise. A country where economic inequalities are appalling can introduce political economy only at the risk of political instability".
The RSS is also dead against federal structure of the constitution, again a 'Basic' feature of the India polity. This is clear from the following communication of Golwalkar which he sent to the first session of the National Integration Council in 1961. It read:
"Today's federal form of government not only gives birth but also nourishes the feelings of separatism, in a way refuses to recognize the fact of one nation and destroys it. It must be completely uprooted, constitution purified and unitary form of government be established".[3]
The Constituent Assembly of India founded an all-inclusive, non-sectarian and secular polity but Organiser in its issue on the very eve of Independence (14 August, 1947), rejected the whole concept of a composite nation in an editorial titled 'Whither':
"Let us no longer allow ourselves to be influenced by false notions of nationhood. Much of the mental confusion and the present and future troubles can be removed by the ready recognition of the simple fact that in Hindusthan only the Hindus form the nation and the national structure must be built on that safe and sound foundation…the nation itself must be built up of Hindus, on Hindu traditions, culture, ideas and aspirations".
Unfortunately, those who profess faith in the present Indian polity or constitutional institutions like judiciary which are supposed to safeguard the basic structure of the Indian polity, have largely failed to realise the gravity of the critical challenge presented by the Hindutva groups led by RSS. A simplistic narrative has been that RSS is OK except its inimical attitude towards Muslims and Christians of the country. It was due to this discourse that when Narendra Modi as CM of Gujarat while talking to the Reuters on July 7, 2013 declared that he was a 'Hindu nationalist', there were no protests in or outside Parliament. It is to be noted that it was for the first time in the history of independent India that a person occupying a high constitutional post declared to be a 'Hindu nationalist', the same epithet which killers of MK Gandhi had used for themselves. There was no uproar, either from secular political parties or higher judiciary which is expected to safeguard the democratic-secular constitutional set up of the country.
It is shocking that 'Maoists', 'Urban Naxals', 'Khalistanis' and 'Islamists' who according to the Indian State want to destroy Indian polity are hanged or put behind bars regularly but the RSS cadres rule India despite their open declarations/deeds of undoing Indian constitutional polity. Sad beginning of an end of a glorious future of India as an egalitarian and justice-able society dreamt by the constitution makers!
References
1. [https://indianexpress.com/article/india/anantkumar-hedge-we-are-here-to-change-the-constitutionsecular-most-4998737/]
2. M.S. Golwalkar, bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996, p 238.
3. M.S. Golwalkar, Shri Guruji Samagar Darshan (collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), vol. 3, Bhartiya Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, p. 128.
Frontier
Vol. 51, No.24, Dec 16 - 22, 2018 |