Eminent Socialist Leader Surendra Mohan
When the ban was imposed on the RSS in 1948 after the assassination of Gandhiji, the reason was that communal feelings were high owing to the fact of partition, and although every effort was being made to control the situation, the RSS and similar groups were busy exploiting it. Then, the RSS leaders gave an undertaking to ... Home Minister, Patel, that it would not indulge in political activities. But being essentially a political movement wedded to the creation of a Hindu Rashtra and unifying India, the RSS could hardly keep that promise. After the sad demise of the Sardar ... in October 1950, the RSS set up the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951.
It is well known that the RSS deputed Balraj Madhok, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Vasantarao Oak and Atal Behari Vajpayee to launch the Jana Sangh. They enlisted the cooperation of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee who. Had resigned from the Union Cabinet on the issue of atrocities committed in East Pakistan against the Hindus ... The executive head was always to be from the RSS .:. (Later) the RSS revised that strategy. It (got) Balraj Madhok and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya to take over the Presidentship as well. Moreover, in every State unit, the Organising Secretary of the Jana Sangh was to be appointed by the RSS bosses at Nagpur, in order that its control over the organisation was ensured.
In1969, Balraj Madhok proposed to his colleagues that the Jana Sangh should unify organisationally with like-minded parties like the Swatantra Party ... The RSS did not accept this proposition, for the unified party could not have been amenable to its organizational control. In disgust, Madhok left the Jana Sangh ...
When the Government imposed internal Emergency in 1975, it banned the RSS. Without bothering about the suppression of the civil liberties and democratic rights of the people, the RSS leadership pledged to the Prime Minister that if the ban was lifted, it would fully cooperate with her in implementing her 15-point programme although ... it had (already) joined the JP-led movement for total revolution. However, this request was turned down. Later when efforts to unify the non-Congress and non-Communist Parties were being made, the (then RSS) General Secretary Madhav Rao Mulay, wrote to the leaders of these parties that its full-time workers will not accept any offices in the united party, nor would they contest elections. He did this in order to remove the misgivings which these parties, except the Jana Sangh, entertained that it shall establish its control over the new party. However, after the formation of the party and its government, the old ... habits started to work. Moreover, all efforts to amalgamate the allies mass organisations of the coalescing parties were stoutly opposed by the RSS and the Jana Sangh group.
The struggle within the Janata Party formed in 1977 over the issue of dual loyalty of the ex-Jana Sangh workers to the party and the RSS split the party and brought down the government (of) Morarji Desai ... The RSS has its own committed and controlled mass organisations among students, youth, women, workers, farmers and the Scheduled Tribes to propagate its politics of Hindutva, which thrives on anti-religious minorities hate campaign. Most political parties ... follow this same pattern. Each one of them has such front organisations.
(But) the BJP has no student wing, for the RSS-controlled ABVP is there to work for it at the master's bidding. The BJP has no trade union wing either; once again, it relies on the BMS.
The RSS is in its daily activities a para-military organisation, training its cadres whom it catches young in the art of wielding blunt instruments. There are daily parades, marches, (lessons in) martial arts and worship of the saffron flag, which is considered the symbol of Hindu nationhood. Several reports on communal riots have pointed to its role in those flare-ups. However, the Prime Minister himself started public life as an RSS pracharak, and went over to party work on its instructions. If it has been decided to play up the controversy and saffronise the entire administration, how can he demur? (Source: The Mainstream, 19 February, 2000)
RSS as a Threat
Editorial, The Hindustan Times, 14 March, 2000
... With K. Sudarshan, who has the reputation of being a hard-liner, replacing Rajendra Singh, there is speculation whether ... Vajpayee's appeal to leave the Government alone will be jeopardised. Although Sudarshan has acknowledged the compulsions of coalition politics which restrict' the Government's scope for following the Hindutva line, even his forceful articulation of. the RSS agenda may put the Government under pressure. Although there is nothing new in what he has said, the reiteration is still likely to jolt the Government's friends into realising the retrogressive nature of the organisation which stands at the head of the Parivar.
Whether it is the economy or the ... Constitution or the West or the minorities, it is clear that the RSS continues to occupy the most extreme position on the right of the political spectrum. Even the slightest concession to any of its demands, so righteously made by the new chief, cannot but inflict irreparable damage on the multicultural Indian society.
... The dangerously divisive RSS agenda may even serve to bring him closer to his allies in the NDA. But the point is not whether the agenda is implemented. It is that such a regressive programme poses a grave threat to the country, apart from being a threat to the Government. That an organisation, known for its proximity to the largest ruling party ... can flaunt the sectarian agenda so brazenly is a cause for concern.
