Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s assertion that violence does not benefit anybody and the society to which violence is dear is now counting its last days is a jumla like his earlier jumlas. Bhagwat often comes out with some innovative like gimmicks which he himself contradicts later in his other statements.
If his latest observation is to be believed then it can well be inferred that Hindu society is counting his days. Besides this he has said one more thing and it is “We should forever be non-violent and peace-loving. For this, it is essential to bring together all communities and preserve humanity. We all need to do this work on a priority”. His sermon has been quite soothing to the ears.
But it gives rise to a question why has he not been telling his frontal organisations, espousing politics of hatred fanning out violence, to shun away the politics and discard the persons promoting and patronising hatred and violence. In recent months various so called Hindu dharm sansads organised meets to promote the Hindu cues, but at each of sansads the speakers, who are revered as the dharam gurus, vomited poison against Muslims and even called upon the Hindu boys to get ready to kill Muslims. What kind of sands it were?
Bhagwat was not at all concerned of turning the Hindu youths into mercenaries. The RSS loves to have a strong band of youthjs who can desert their father and mother and take to killing innocent Muslims on the plea of protecting the sanctity of Hindutva. In the past we used to listen Islam is indanger. Now every day we hear that Hindutva is in danger.
Bhagwat said that that violence does not benefit anybody. He also emphasised the need to bring together all communities and preserve humanity. Obviously he was uttering these pious words in the backdrop of wide condemnation of the attacks on Muslims in Jehangirpur of Delhi and recent clashes between different groups in several parts of the country during Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti. The RSS chief was speaking as the chief guest at a ceremony in eastern Maharashtra.
This was yet another ploy of his to terrorise the Muslims. While he does not call upon the Hindus, the Hindu parents, not to allow their kids to become blood thirsty mercenaries, he ironically refrained from giving a call to his front organisations to refrain from violence. It is argued that he has been under pressure from extreme right elements in the RSS not to deviate from the ultra Hindu line. This is absolutely not correct. In fact it is a strategy to shield the RSS elements who have been indulging in violence. It is said that ever since he suggested that Hindus and Muslims share a similar DNA, Bhagwat has been facing the ire of the Hindu Right. If he really nursed this view he could well have asked his men not spread against Muslims. But he did not do so. Why?
It is interesting to note that after his observations, the hatred and violence against Muslims has compounded. We have before us the issue of Hijab. The Hindu organsations owing allegiance to RSS made it a big issue. The situation has reached to such a stage that the judiciary has to intervene. The RSS and BJP cadres and leaders have launched a sort of economic sanctions against the Muslims. In states like Karnataka and Gujarat the Hindu fundamentalists have issued diktat not to purchase any thing from Muslim shops. What does it imply?
Some Hindu fundamentalists claim that Bhagwat is indulging in the policy of “appease Muslims”. Why should he resort to this policy when the Hindu organisations and even the Modi government have been openly indulging in Muslim bashing and isolating them from the mainstream life.
A notion has been muscularly gaining ground that the BJP government has been acting at the direction of the RSS. The lynchings and killings of the Muslims have been taking place at the instructions of the RSS leaders. The accusation against Bhagwat of being soft towards the Muslims and trying to appease them is being raised to ensure that the image of the RSS is not maligned. It continues to be harbinger of Hindutva. A blemish record would not help the RSS and also prove to be impediment in the process of BJP continuing to rule India.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has been openly speaking against Muslims, even Amit Shah does not deter from venting his ire against them. In this backdrop Bhagwat’s stand is simply a tactics to create confusion amongst the Muslims. His statement “Hindu-Muslim unity is misleading as they’re not different, but one. DNA of all Indians is the same, irrespective of religion,” is simply aimed at making the Muslims to accept the RSS as their friend and relative. While the frontal organisations have been terrorising Muslims and perpetrating violence on them, interestingly Bhagwat is not tired of urging Muslims not to get “trapped in the cycle of fear” that Islam is in danger in India. His is the case of simple double speak.
His speech of 21 July in Guwahati saying “Indians have been living together for centuries despite different religions and food habits as our culture is one”, ought to be seen in this backdrop. Significantly while he shows his humane face towards Muslims to the world he is at the same time circumspect “Muslims were looking to dominate and that there had been a strategy in 1930 to increase the Muslim population in the country.” This is also a strategy to keep the common Hindu in good book. Bhagwat knows that BJP cannot survive4 simply on the support of a group of mercenaries. It needs the votes of the common Hindus who constitute 90 per cent of the population.
The Hindutva is based on two different conceptions. First, there is the old conflict of civilizations argument. An impression has been created that Hindus and Muslims represent two conflicting civilizations; obviously communal clashes are natural and inevitable. Only a fortnight back seven Hindu youths we were arrested by the UP police for their machination to engineer communal violence. Dressed as Muslims, they had put some indiscriminating things in a local religious place. There is no denying the fact that this action must have the blessings of some senior RSS and BJP leaders. It is extremely sad that the police administration, civic authorities, and even educational institutions are clearly taking a very defined bureaucratic position to facilitate what Hindutva groups describe as positive secularism.
There is no denying the fact that Muslims were facing “unprecedented onslaught from the BJP and its militant political arms”. The Hindu fundamentalists are not in the mood to spare the Muslims even though they have preferred to become docile and refusing to react to the Hindu religious aggressiveness. While the Muslims are showing patience, the RSS and BJP have been resorting to more cruel form of repression. Ironically after Yogi’s ascent to the office of chief minister, bulldozer has become the symbol of state terror against the community.
Narendra Modi on Saturday asked the judiciary to set up district-level committees, headed by district judges, to consider bail for the country’s 3.5 lakh undertrial prisoners. But he refused to underline who these undertrials are? It is a known fact that 90 per cent of them are poor and not less than 60 per cent of these people are Muslims. These people are implicated in false cases by the police and sent to jail as they have no resources to fight legal battle. In most of the cases police frame them in unbailable cases.
In fact, Modi admitted that most of the undertrials are from poor or ordinary families. Nevertheless, the fact remains that many critics of Modi’s government such as the Bhima Koregaon accused and anti-citizenship-amendment protesters have been held for months and years without bail. In many BJP-ruled states, when accused receive bail in a case, they are often detained or rearrested on fresh charges as was witnessed in the Mevani case in Assam.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports show that in almost all the states of the Indian Union religious minorities are over-represented in jail. During UPA II, Muslims represented 21 to 22.5 per cent of the “undertrials” and under NDA II (from 2014 to 2019) 19 to 21 per cent. Muslims are over-represented among jail inmates in almost all the Hindu-majority states: In Assam, Muslims, according to the 2011 census, are 34 per cent of the population and they represent 43 to 47.5 per cent of the “undertrials”; in Gujarat, Muslims are 10 per cent of the population and since 2017, they have been about 25 to 27 per cent of the “undertrials” (they were 24 per cent in 2013); in Karnataka, Muslims are 13 per cent of the population and they are 19 to 22 per cent of the “undertrials” since 2018 (they were 13 to 14 per cent in 2013-2017); in Kerala, they are 26.5 per cent of the population and 28 to 30 per cent of the “undertrials”; in MP, Muslims are 6.5 per cent and 12 to 15 per cent of the “undertrials” since 2017.
The over-representation of Muslims in jail is reflection of the communal bias of the police. In many states, the percentage of “convicted” Muslims is much lower than their percentage amongst “undertrials”. In almost every state, the minorities are over-represented in jail and the majorities are under-represented. The worst has been happening in Assam. The attack on the Muslims in Assam, a state ruled by the BJP, has created unprecedented fear among members of the community. Eviction is the latest weapon being used to trap them in a cycle of poverty and hardship.
The targeting of the community continued in the name of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and through the creation of the infamous detention camps. A special category of people was created in Assam called “doubtful-voters”; citizenship of thousands of Miyas came under a cloud, based on prejudice and stereotypes. Many were forcibly sent to detention camps. (IPA Service)
