LUCKNOW: The veil of secrecy drawn over the three-day conference of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) here could not hide the contradictions plaguing the Hindutva protagonists,
The delegates believed to be the crore groups of the RSS, discussed {issues ranging from “integral humanism” to “Gandhi an economy.” What emerged was a consensus on ideas like “Swadeshi” and social justice commonly associated with centrist parties and a shift from the emphasis on Hindu revivalism,
Nothing symbolizes the delegate’s dilemma more than the fact that only two resolutions, on the Cauvery water dispute and the Swadeshi movement, were passed at the three-day meet which concluded on Tuesday.
Mandal phobia seems to have elbowed out “Hindu resurgence” the RSS agenda. The RSS ideologues new-found love for “social justice” a slogan coined by the Janata Dal, especially V.P. Singh was aimed at wooing the backwards.
Militant Hindu nationalism, propagated by the RSS through the Ekta Yatra of the BJP president, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, was effectively countered by “integral humanism” by which the RSS sought to set guidelines for the world in the wake of the collapse of communism.
Though the conference noted with glee the loosening grip of communism in India and its collapse in the erstwhile Soviet Union, it also sought to fill the vacuum by espousing the cause of the working class. “The new economic policies would ruin the country’s progress and. prove to be detrimental to the working class,” said the RSS general secretary, HY Eucharis.
“The ironies in the annual report read out by Seshadri of the conference made it clear that confusion, rather than clarity of thought and purpose, dominated the mood of the RSS brass.
A the futility of Hindu consolidation dawned on RSS ideologues, the focus shifted to widening of the social base of the RSS and its, political adjunct, the BJP. According to political observers, it was for this reason that the RSS had launched social projects and cultural programs in tribal, art and slum areas.
The formation of Khel Bharti, with special emphasis on the Eklavya Khelkood Pratiyogita, exclusively for tribals, was aimed at shedding the organizations image of being the protector of Brahminism. The slogans for “social justice and equity” for deprived sections of the society was also an attempt at image building.
The fact that the conference kept quiet on the Ayodhya issue and refrained from taking any militant posture on communal lines suggests that the RSS leaders have come to terms with the ground realities of real politic.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 27, 1992
