By Krishna Jha
The right reaction had started raising its head in our country around the time when Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh came alive a century back with Hindutva as its signature. Using Hinduism for achieving its political objective remained the core of the RSS. So was its double-speak. In its hundred years long life, even now, its chief Mohan Bhagwat placed “communal harmony” and “social responsibility” at the heart of his vision for India. “As a society, a country, a culture, and a nation, we are united. We must remember that this larger identity is above everything else for us. Because of this, our attitudes towards each other in society are required to be harmonious and respectful. Everyone has their own beliefs, icons and places of worship. We should be careful not to disrespect these in thought, word, or action,” he said on October 2, 2025, the day the RSS completed its hundred years.
The words obviously did not mean the way they were said, hence sounded empty. There is no effort to establish secularism as its creed. There is continuous stream of cruelties, unimaginable brutalities against minorities, who are considered to be the ‘other’. The example came the same day, on October 2, from Uttar Pradesh, the state run by the BJP, with same Mohan Bhagwat, chief of RSS, being the guiding force for the party at national level.
Only hours before Bhagwat’s claims on October 2, which also happens to be the Gandhi Jayanti Day, the Sambhal district administration demolished a mosque and a marriage hall, claiming that they were allegedly built on the government land. In the state, this was the second mosque to face demolition in Sambhal within four months. Authorities said the structures, including a madrassa, were on gram sabha and pond land. Local residents, however, claimed the marriage hall was built with donations and requested alternate land.
What has happened in Sambhal is part of the systematic destruction of Muslim places of worship that has continued unabated in Uttar Pradesh under the Yogi Adityanath government. In February this year, a 168-year-old mosque in Meerut was bulldozed to make way for the controversial rapid rail project. The mosque, located on Delhi Road, was deemed an obstacle to the development, with authorities claiming its demolition was necessary for the project’s completion.
The destruction took place under heavy police supervision, with the main gate of the mosque being demolished and its electricity connection severed. Authorities insisted that the mosque’s removal was part of the broader plans for the rapid rail network, a project promoted by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC).
Similarly, in December 2024, a portion of a 185-year-old mosque in Uttar Pradesh was demolished by local authorities. Once again the reason, as the authorities claimed, was that the structure was encroaching on the Banda-Bahraich Highway. The incident was reported from Fatehpur district. It came merely days after the Supreme Court underlined that bulldozer action was unacceptable under the rule of law.
The district administration claimed that it had given a notice to remove some parts of the mosque due to their “illegal construction” on August 17.The mosque officials claimed were given a month’s time and locals promised to follow suit. However, they decided to challenge the order in the high court, said the district administration.
The chief of the Noorie Masjid Management Committee disputed the district administration’s claim. “The Noorie Mosque was built in 1839 and the road here was constructed in 1956, yet the PWD is calling some parts of the mosque illegal,” said Mohammad Moin Khan, Mutawalli (chief) of Noorie Masjid Management Committee.
According to the authorities, about twenty meters of Noorie Masjid, which was obstructing the widening of Banda-Bahraich Highway No. 13, was demolished by a bulldozer in the presence of officials and later the debris was removed.
The speech with which the mosques in UP are being demolished has has sparked widespread anger and disbelief among Muslims in the region, many of whom see it as part of a wider trend of targeting Muslim religious properties under the current state government. Several local residents voiced their frustrations, drawing comparisons to the ongoing suppression of Palestinians in Israel.
In his speech on October 2, the RSS chief spoke about following rules, maintaining order, and demonstrating harmonious behaviour. He said, taking the law into one’s hands and coming out on the streets or engaging in hooliganism and violence, on a small matter or merely out of suspicion — this tendency is not correct.
In contrast to the lessons advanced by the chief of the RSS, demolitions of mosques and attack on Muslims are happening with sickening regularity. Show of strength is deliberately done to terrorise the minority community in states where its own political outfit, Bharatiya Janata Party, is in power.
In fact, the RSS’s hundred years are full of this kind of double-speak. Mohan Bhagwat in his October 2 speech only continued this process. Contradictions between the RSS leader’s conciliatory public statements and the organisation’s core ideology and actions continue to threaten the core of Indian Constitution. The conciliatory note in his speech does not in any sense represent a change of stance of the RSS on the issues of secularism. It only means that the RSS chief is trying to mislead the nation by diverting the attention from attack on secular structure by its own men. (IPA Service)
