GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES IN RSS: HASTENING THE END OF
DEMOCRATIC-SECULAR INDIAN POLITY
The directive of the RSS-BJP
government issued on dated July 9, 2024, stated that the government had
“reviewed” instructions issued in 1966, 1970, and 1980, “and it has been
decided to remove the mention of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) from the
impugned OMs (Official Memorandums) dated 30.11.1966, 25.07.1970 and
28.10.1980”. The 1966, 1970 and 1980 directives were issued during the reign of
Indira Gandhi banning participation of government employees in the activities
of RSS and Jamaat-e-Islami. The 1966 directive which set the ball rolling
stated that “No Government servant shall be a member of, or be otherwise
associated with, any political party or any organisation which takes part in politics,
nor shall he take part in, subscribe in aid of, or assist in any other manner,
any political movement or activity.”
In fact, this directive was the
continuation of the rule formulated by the home ministry under Sardar Patel.
The Government Servants’ Conduct Rules 1949 prohibited the participation of
government employees in political activities. It was done to ensure a neutral
and non-partisan bureaucracy unlike the USA where the bureaucracy was
normatively aligned with the ruling party described as ‘committed bureaucracy’.
The July 9 directive came to
public notice only on July 23 which not only removed RSS from the category of
political organization but also from being threat to democratic-secular Indian
polity. Interestingly, the earlier pro-RSS Indian governments headed by Morarji
Desai (1977-79) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee (for 1 month in 1996 and1998-2004)
never thought it prudent to do this favour to RSS. It is also important to note
that July 9, official order kept mum about Jamaat-e-Islami which was bracketed
with RSS by Indira governments. This directive by the Modi government should
dismiss all talks of rift between PM Modi and RSS. The former leaves no stone
unturned to prove its loyalty to RSS and Hindutva project.
We need to compare the July 9,
character certificate to RSS with written and spoken facts in the RSS domain.
Has RSS ever been apolitical organization and loyal to democratic-secular
India? It never was and is not even today. The opening of gates of RSS for
bureaucracy is a dangerous ploy to destroy whatever noble survives in the
largest democracy of the world in the last 10 years of Modi rule. Let us judge
the reality by ourselves.
Is RSS a non-political
organization?
We must compare the RSS claim
that it is a cultural-social organization and has nothing to do with politics
with the following two statements of M. S. Golwalkar, who headed the RSS after
the death of the founder of the RSS, KB Hedgewar, and is considered the
greatest ideologue of the organization till date. The first statement tells us
about the kind of personnel who are sent to manipulate politics and what is
expected of them by the RSS. While delivering a speech on March 16, 1954, in
Sindi, Wardha, he said,
“If we say that we are part of
the organization and accept its discipline then selectiveness has no place in
life. Do what is told. If told to play kabaddi, play kabaddi; told to hold
meeting then meeting…For instance some of our friends were told to go and work
for politics that does not mean that they have great interest or inspiration
for it. They don’t die for politics like fish without water. If they are told
to withdraw from politics, then also there is no objection. Their discretion is
just not required.”3
[Golwalkar, MS, Shri Guruji
Samagar Darshan (collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), Bhartiya Vichar
Sadhna, Nagpur, vol. 3, p. 33.]
The second statement is also very
significant which reads:
“We know this also that some
of our Swayamsevaks [cadres] work in politics. There they have to organize
according to the needs of work public meetings, processions etc., have to raise
slogans. All these things have no place in our work. However, the actor should
portray the character accepted to the best of his capability. But sometimes
Swayamsevaks go beyond the role assigned to an actor as they develop
over-zealousness in their hearts, to the extent that they become useless for
this work. This is not good.” 4
[Ibid, vol. 4, pp. 4-5.]
We find here Guru Golwalkar
referring to the Swayamsevaks loaned to political offshoot as ‘nat’ or
performers who are meant to dance to the tunes of the RSS. This fact should not
be missed here that Golwalkar’s above design of controlling the political arm
was elaborated in March 1960 almost nine years after the establishment of
Jansangh (the forerunner of the BJP) in 1951.
RSS has strong political
ambitions and designs are further corroborated by a publication of the RSS. The
central publication house of the RSS, the Suruchi Prakashan, Jhandewalan, New
Delhi, published, Param Vaibhav Ke Path Par (1997) which gave details of more
than 40 organizations created by the RSS for different tasks. The BJP as a
political organization figures prominently in it at number 3, with the ABVP,
Hindu Jagaran Manch, Vishva Hindu Parishad, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch and Sanskar
Bharti etc. The preface of the book
itself declares that “without the knowledge of the different kinds of
activities of the Sawyamsevaks (the volunteers of the RSS) the introduction of
the RSS is incomplete. Keeping this in mind it has been attempted in this book
to produce brief information about the diverse activities of the Sawyamsevaks.
This book covers the organizational status till 1996…We believe that this book
will prove to be of use for those who want to understand the RSS with the
Swyamsevaks”. 5
[Sapre, SD, Parm
Vaibhav ke Path Per, Suruchi, Delhi, 1997, p. 7.]
RSS committed to build a Hindu
state
If government employees are
allowed to join RSS ‘shakhas’ it would be mandatory for them to recite
following Prarthana (prayer) and Pratigya (oath), the recitation of which is
must in each ‘shakha’.
Prarthana:
“Affectionate Motherland, I
eternally bow to you/O Land of Hindus, you have reared me in comfort/O Sacred
Land, the Great Creator of Good, may this body of mine be dedicated to you/I
again and again bow before You/O God almighty, we the integral part of the
Hindu Rashtra salute you in reverence/For Your cause have we girded up our
loins/Give us Your Blessings for its accomplishment.” 6
[RSS, Shakha Darshika,
Gyan Ganga, Jaipur, 1997, p.1.]
Pratigya:
“Before the all-powerful God
and my ancestors, I most solemnly take this oath, that I become a member of the
RSS in order to achieve all round greatness of Bharatvarsha by fostering the
growth of my sacred Hindu religion, Hindu society, and Hindu culture. I shall
perform the work of the Sangh honestly, disinterestedly, with my heart and
soul, and I shall adhere to this goal all my life. Bharat Mata Ki Jai.” 7 [Ibid,
p. 66.]
Thus, the government employees
will not be faithful to a democratic-secular India to serve which they took
oath while joining the service but would be committed to subvert it into a
Hindu theocratic state.
RSS denigrates the National
Flag
It is the outcome of its
commitment to the building of Hindu nation that the RSS hates the Tri-colour
and the Constitution of India, the two great symbols of our secular-democratic
polity.
The RSS since its inception in
1925 demanded that India was a Hindu nation, and its national flag should be
Bhagwa Jhanda (saffron flag) only. When the Constituent Assembly adopted the
Tricolour as the national Flag, the RSS demanded the hoisting of saffron flag
at the ramparts of Red Fort in
“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.”
[‘Mystery behind the bhagwa
dhwaj’ in Organizer (RSS English organ), August 14, 1947.]
RSS committed to replace
democratic-secular Indian Constitution with Manusmriti
How loyal the RSS is to the
Constitution of India can be known by the following statement of Golwalkar,
which is being reproduced from Bunch of Thought, which is not only
selection of the writings of MS Golwalkar but also a Bible of 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? No.”10
[Golwalkar, MS, Bunch of
Thoughts, Sahitya Sandhu, Bangalore, 1996, p. 238.]
In fact, RSS wanted this
Constitution to be replaced by Manusmriti or Codes of Manu which is known for
its derogatory and inhuman references to Untouchables and women. When the
Constituent Assembly of India finalized the Constitution of India on November
26, 1949, RSS was not happy. It’s organ, Organizer in an editorial on November
30, 1949, complained,
“But in our 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.”
There is no doubt that
participation of government employees in the activities of such an organization
which openly decries the national Flag, and the Constitution will only hasten
the end of a democratic-secular India.
Anti-democracy
The RSS, contrary to the
principles of democracy, has been constantly demanding that
This slogan of one flag, one
leader and one ideology has directly been borrowed from the programmes of the
Nazi and Fascist Parties of Europe. Thus, all those who will join the RSS
bandwagon would naturally be anti-thetical to a democratic
Against federalism
The RSS is also dead against the
federal structure of the Constitution, again a Basic Feature of the
“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.” [Ibid, vol. 3, p. 128.]
Imagine the bureaucracy which is
supposed to be committed to the federal set-up of India would work to wreck it
as per the wishes of RSS.
Role of RSS in Gandhiji’s
murder
It is a matter of shame that
government employees in India are being permitted to participate in the
activities of an organization which was held responsible for the murder of
Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi by no less a person than Sardar Patel.
Sardar as the first Home Minister of India, in a letter dated July 18, 1948 to
a prominent leader of Hindu Mahasabha, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, wrote:
“As regards the RSS and the
Hindu Mahasabha, the case relating to Gandhiji’s murder is sub judice and I
should not like to say anything about the participation of the two
organizations, but our reports do confirm that, as a result of the activities
of these two bodies, particularly the former, an atmosphere was created in the
country in which such a ghastly tragedy became possible. There is no doubt in
my mind that the extreme section of the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in the
conspiracy. The activities of the RSS constituted a clear threat to the
existence of Government and the State. Our reports show that those activities,
despite the ban, have not died down. Indeed, as time has marched on, the RSS
circles are becoming more defiant and are indulging in their subversive
activities in an increasing measure.”13
[Letter 64 cited in Sardar
Patel: Select Correspondence19450-1950, vol. 2, Navjivan Publishing House,
Ahmedabad, 1977, pp. 276-277.]
If such are the philosophical
commitments and activities of the RSS how can any patriotic Indian, what to
talk of government employees, be allowed to participate in the RSS activities?
It is high time that all those organizations and individuals who have faith in
a secular-democratic India must ask the question that when ‘Maoists’, ‘Khalistanis’
and ‘Islamists’, ‘Urban Naxals’ etc. are routinely declared anti-national,
jailed and hanged as they aim at subverting the constitutional set-up of India,
why is it that RSS remains out of our scrutiny? It is unfortunate that Hindu
Separatism is yet to be acknowledged as a serious threat to the Indian
democracy despite its terrible anti-national and anti-humanity record. Soon
central government offices and institutions are going to witness the
functioning of RSS shakhas and boudhik shivir or ideological orientation
camps preaching hatred against democratic-secular polity. One positive scenario
could be that anti-Hindutva patriotic employees would confront these activities
in the offices. Thanks to July 9 directive every office may be divided into two
camps. This is how RSS is going to destroy the smooth functioning of the
governing activities.
If Congress and other democratic-secular
outfits are serious about saving secular-democratic India, they must legally
and politically confront the RSS gang with the documents cited above. They also
need to weed out the Hindutva elements from their ranks. The time is running
out fast.
Shamsul Islam
July 24, 2024
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