RSS stance: Shifting with the winds

It is unusual for the Sangh Parivar, especially now that it is at the height of its political sway, to endure two retractions within five days on issues fundamental to its ideological tenets.

Last Sunday, at an event to mark the Guru Ravidas Jayanti in Mumbai, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat blamed Brahmins for conceiving the caste system. Twelve hours later, after searing criticism from Brahmin outfits, Sunil Ambekar, the RSS publicity chief, clarified that Bhagwat blamed “pundits”, that is “learned men”, not any specific caste.

As the Sangh Parivar recovered from the disingenuousness of its defence of the sarsanghchalak, the Narendra Modi government faced ridicule when the Centre’s Animal Welfare Board on Wednesday appealed to all to observe February 14  — usually celebrated as Valentine’s Day — as “cow hug day”. Giriraj Singh and Parshottam Rupala, union ministers of rural development and animal husbandry, respectively, backed the move and were probably ignorant of what would follow.

Read | Everyone should work collectively to make India 'vishwa guru': RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

Two days after its initial order and a day after Rupala and Singh’s support, the Animal Welfare Board withdrew the appeal, but only after much ridicule on social media.

The Sangh Parivar and the BJP’s governments at the Centre and in the states have lately stared at contradictions in their approach and practice on other issues close to their ideological moorings.

Earlier this month, RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told a gathering in Jaipur that all those born in India were Hindus and the Sangh should not exclude them even if they have consumed beef under compulsion or for any other reason. However, instances of cow vigilantes attacking Muslims, if found with cattle, continue to get reported. 

When Samajwadi party leader Swami Prasad Maurya recently alleged that certain verses in the Ramcharitmanas “insult” some castes and demanded a ban, the BJP leaders initially reacted sharply, asking for his arrest. However, the BJP, and the larger Sangh Parivar, soon had a rethink and backtracked from taking to the streets lest the issue become a point of contention for OBC and Dalit consolidation.

In Karnataka, the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government is in a cleft stick over its reservation policy, especially the promise to increase reservation quota for Scheduled Castes and Tribes, while in Bihar, the BJP is nervous about the Nitish Kumar government’s caste census, the results of which in May could lead to new dynamics in Hindi heartland politics. 

Meanwhile, the PM has appealed to the BJP rank and file to reach out to minorities, including Pasmanda Muslims. Still, the party is resistant to field them in elections other than for primarily Muslim-dominated seats, where they stand little chance, as happened in the Delhi civic polls in December where the four Pasmanda Muslims BJP fielded in Muslim-dominated seats lost comprehensively as voters preferred Congress.

Facing a churn?

With the Narendra Modi government soon to enter its tenth year, preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and a possible third successive term, as well as the RSS busy marking its centenary year celebrations in 2024-25, could the Sangh Parivar be facing a churn when it is seemingly all powerful? Is it less surefooted about the path ahead now that it has accomplished much of the Hindutva agenda?

According to an RSS insider, who frequently sheds light on the organisation's inner workings in his writings, the Sangh is rethinking its stated positions on several contemporary issues, especially those that appeal to the youth. It has frequently spoken about climate change and environmental destruction, such as in subsidence-hit Joshimath, where the RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch described the steps taken by the BJP's Uttarakhand government to save the town as "inadequate". 

Another example of this is the RSS changing its position on LGBTQ+ rights. In an interview with Organiser, an RSS mouthpiece, in January, Bhagwat said Indian civilisation has traditionally acknowledged the community. He pointed to Hamsa and Dimbhaka — two generals of king Jarasandha, who had waged a long war against Lord Krishna — saying they were "in that sort of a relationship". 

"However, foot soldiers and supporters do not always understand this (change in position)," the RSS insider says, pointing to examples such as the "cow hug day" appeal, which reinforce the perception that the RSS is illiberal and hurts its image among the youth.

According to political commentator Radhika Ramaseshan, the Sangh Parivar, especially Bhagwat, after his comment blaming "pundits" for the caste system, has tied itself up in knots. "Would a Rajnath Singh be called a pundit? But an Atal Bihari Vajpayee or a P V Narasimha Rao were called so since the honorific is associated with learning and erudition, traditionally assumed to be the prerogative of Brahmins. The RSS purportedly believes in a casteless society, which to me is a fig leaf to perpetuate the hegemony of Brahmins," she says. Ramaseshan points out that RSS has only recently inducted non-Brahmins in its leadership. 

The RSS has, Ramaseshan says, tried to reach out to Dalits and Muslims, mostly in response to the changing social order, for example, assiduously to non-Jatav castes among Dalits of Uttar Pradesh, as it knows it cannot stand only for Brahmins and symbolise an upper caste order. 

Underpinnings unchanged

Still, the outfit's underpinnings remain the same as when it was founded in 1925. The RSS does have a front to reach out to Muslims. 

"But at rock bottom, it still subscribes to M S Golwalkar's views that everyone in India is a Hindu and should be brought back to the fold," Ramaseshan says, putting Hosabale's comment in perspective. “The RSS might feel forced to revise its stand on issues and even utter statements that sound liberal, but it does not change substantively,” she adds.

According to the RSS insider, the Sangh will discuss its position on issues such as the caste census, 'ghar wapsi', 'love jihad' and reservations at the meeting of Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, its highest decision-making body, from March 12 to 14 in Haryana's Sonepat. 

"Believe us when we say that a significant section of the RSS is worried about the increased toxicity in our society over issues of religion and caste and the need to cool tempers," he says, attributing this factor to Bhagwat's statement about the caste system last Sunday and his visits to a mosque and madrasa in Delhi last year or his interactions with Muslim intellectuals, adding that several in the Sangh have appreciated Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra and its effort at "healing India".

However, Rajkumar Jain, a political activist who taught at Delhi University, points to the PM's speech in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. "The PM thumped his chest and said he is more than enough or outweighs all leaders in the opposition who are rallying against him. To those who have not seen the speech, I would suggest they do," he says. 

According to Jain, the objective of the statements and retractions from Sangh Parivar is to ensure another majority for the Modi-led BJP in 2024 to give shape to the unfinished Hindutva agenda. For that, at least until next year, the Sangh Parivar will be on its best behaviour.