HINDU CHAUVINISM

N.V. Subramanian on RSS at the Crossroads – II

RSS cadres have already revealed a deep revulsion for the new criminal and caste-based trends in politics. In UP and elsewhere, they have not only kept off election campaigns of unsatisfactory BJP candidates but actively campaigned against those of them with questionable backgrounds. And in Gujarat, local VHP leaders decided on their own to oppose Shankersinh Vaghela to defeat him in the last Lok Sabha elections. Increasingly, then, there is a backlash from cadres unhappy with the ways of the BJP, and the RSS can do little about it.

This was bound to happen. When Golwalkar agreed to give RSS support, and a large tranche of its pracharaks, to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee to start the Jan Sangh, he did so against his own better judgement. When Mukherjee died, Golwalkar manoeuvred Deendayal Upadhyaya into a position of authority in the Jan Sangh to prevent its takeover by politicians who could have diluted the Sangh ideology. After Upadhyaya's assassination, Golwalkar was worried about the Jan Sangh, and expressed himself in those terms just before he died in 1973.

Golwalkar always feared a Congressisation of the Jan Sangh. But the Jan Sangh survived him, Golwalkar having never carried out his threat. He once also told Yadav Rao in 1967 that a strong RSS could demolish or create a hundred Jan Sanghs. The two conclusions to be drawn from all is that, for all his apprehensions, he felt the Jan Sangh to be developing along the lines he desired, and that the RSS was capable of staying the course. No one in the RSS is as sure now.

Shankersinh Vaghela's ability to break the BJP government in Gujarat and set himself up as chief Minister has seriously unnerved the RSS. After the near fall of their government in Rajasthan, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat appears terribly vulnerable. Faction-fighting in the party in Madhya Pradesh and Sunderlal Patwa's maladministration have seriously dented the BJP's claim of being able to give good governments.

And then, the inability of the BJP to get an absolute majority in the last UP Assembly elections, despite their having been a triangular contest with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, has provoked serious questioning in the top levels of the BJP and the RSS about the BJP's future ... "We do not have any emotional issue left". Neither the BJP nor the RSS have a clue about how to combat the growing corruption and casteism in the BJP.

The BJP's position is that it ought to be seen as a political party operating in a "polluted environment" and that it should be left to its own devices. And organisational matters are dealt with by the RSS".

RSS leaders also understand the need for BJP leaders to function autonomously, and to be seen to be doing so. But the pace of deterioration has been so rapid that both sides decided to shed pretences and have Seshadri, the RSS general secretary, spend considerable time at the Virar convention of the BJP. The last time senior RSS leader attended a Jan Sangh/BJP conference was 40 years ago, and it could now be a case of too little, too late.

"We cannot stop the corruption in the BJP", says Devendra Swaroop. " It is even difficult now to say who is corrupt and who is not corrupt. It is only a matter of degrees. Without money you cannot contest a ward election. And a non-corrupt politician cannot win an election"

Is the RSS and the BJP leadership giving up then? "Not at all", says Seshadri Chari, the editor of the Organiser, the RSS mouthpiece. "The BJP leadership is seized of the problem. And, of course, we in the RSS are not sitting tight and watching the degeneration". But it is going to be an uphill task. The BJP is not the old Jan Sangh.

One possible cure is injecting more RSS pracharaks into the BJP. "That is a possibility", agrees Chari. "The states will need, to start with, at least two dozen pracharaks each. But, of course, this has to be acceptable to the BJP". Will it be? Govind Acharya, himself a former RSS pracharak, is unimpressed. "Why should i: be that only the RSS has value-based people? We shouldn't just become an extension of the RSS. We should function in the field on our own.

 For the first time a feeling has grown in the RSS that the BJP has become too big for it. "The growth of the BJP has out-stripped that of the RSS", says an RSS functionary. "This is but natural. But it has produced asymmetries in the Sangh Parivar. Why do you think the BJP government collapsed in Gujarat? Because, the RSS was never strong there"

This is a fact that Govind Acharya cannot deny. But h is unwavering in his belief that the BJP alone can – and should - put its house in order. At Virar, a scheme was mooted to re-educate the non-RSS BJP members of the Sangh ideology, and Govind Acharya is seriously going about putting up a sort of school for this purpose. The RSS, meanwhile, has begun its own high-pressure campaign to educate BJP MPs. A view is being articulated that what the BJP needs is not an individualistic, charismatic president but an RSS-style collective leadership.

Even the RSS needs to relook itself. Striking changes have occurred in the political economy. But there is no unanimity in the Sangh Parivar about addressing them.

The RSS is also a wary referee in the face-off between the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the BJP on reclaiming the Kashi and Mathura temples. Giriraj Kishore tells you that the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act constrains BJP from participating in the movement, but Advani says that the BJP had said no to it before the passage of the Act. This rift, however, is not wide as over swadeshi because the VHP is still not serious about the movement. But when - and if - it does become, the RSS would have to square things up to the satisfaction of both the BJP and the VHP. It is, just now, difficult to see the BJP taking another Ayodhya-like risk with nearly 150 seats in Parliament, and the RSS has to be aware of this.

As it is, the collapse of the Congress party has benefited the BJP seat-wise, but it is still not regarded as a national party. Its constituency is limited by the limited constituency of the RSS itself. And the RSS has done little to enlarge it. Has it, for instance, new insights about Muslims?

A small but new Muslim middle class has come up. An entrepreneurial class has arisen from amongst the artisans who see their enrichment tied to stability and this country. And Muslim women have shown new intrepidness in gender battles with the clergy. How alive is the RSS to these changes? It is hard to tell. It is as immobilised on the caste front. "While it has grown rapidly among the educated middle class, it has failed to reach the lower strata of society", says Yadav Rao. This is because the RSS is a class and not a mass organisation. Since as a class organisation we had to choose educated workers, the lower classes got left out. Soon, they were not attracted to the RSS at all.

The Mandal factor has become as hard to overcome. The RSS looked the other way when the BJP made Kalyan Singh, a Lodha the UP chief minister, to counter Mulayam Singh Yadav, and it has put up no strenuous objections to the caste-wise distribution of tickets in successive UP Assembly elections. "The caste factor", concludes Yadav Rao, "is more powerful than any political party or social organisation".

This is bad news for the RSS which considers its fundamental purpose to be to unite Hindu society. Add to it the rising indiscipline in the ranks, the dropping standards of swayamsevaks, and the reduced regard for the austerity and asceticism of the top leadership, and you have an idea of the problems it faces. On the other hand, is the dramatic growth the BJP, based less on the sangh ideology than on (other) factors.

There is then a problem in the Sangh Parivar.

(Source: The Sunday, 16-29 March, 1997)

 Nirmal Kumar on Monumental Neglect

The sheer loot of priceless national monuments and artefacts in this country tell a very sad story. Monuments are allowed to be misused, encroached upon, plundered for building materials or simply allowed to degenerate and decay. Standing amidst us, they are mute witnesses of history, depredations, events big and small, and of their own neglect.

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) which is responsible for the protection and upkeep of more than 5,000 monuments, which are declared protected finds its hands tied at its back, its legs amputated and mouth stuffed. Of course, at the site one notices the blue board declaring it a protected monument. Therefore there is an urgent need to provide more teeth to the ASI to deal with the offenders.

ASI is one of the biggest owners of prime land on which these monuments are built. In connivance with the local revenue officials the Khasra numbers are changed and allotted for monetary considerations. In UK where all the details of archaeological property is aerially photographed and their exact details fed into computer, such detailed information databases are prepared in India. ASI on its own can't stop people from abusing either the monuments or the land attached to it. It has a common complainant. The police often sides with the land grabbers ... appropriate law should be enacted to give policing powers to the ASI.

The 1958 Act was amended in 1992 stating that no structure could come up within 100 meters of the protected monument. Its budget remains grossly inadequate. What is more all attempts of ASI to raise resources are met with public outcry.

The balatantly commercial use of the monuments must be stopped ... finally some monuments are not even properly looked after. A Taj or Qutab Minar or Humayun Tomb is of important, but Charminar, Tughlakabad Fort, Sher Shah's solemn at Sasaram cannot be left to decay. In fact, it would be advisable to draw an itinerary of lesser known monuments for interested people.                                                                   (Source: The Times of India )

Government Statement On National Monuments

Charminar is a centrally protected monument.

Visitors are not allowed to go to the top storey of the Charminar since 17.11.1986 following (the suicide by) five members of a family.

The Charminar monument is in a good state of preservation and regular attention is paid towards its maintenance. There is no proposal to lift the restriction for visiting the top storey of Charminar.                                              

(Source: LSUQ No.334 dated 24.2.1997 by S.S. Owalal)