About a week ago, the BJP-led NDA government lifted the ban on government employees participating in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activities. The Madhya Pradesh High Court criticised the long-standing ban on government employees engaging with the RSS.
Formed on September 27, 1925, the RSS faced bans multiple times in the past and has been constantly vilified by the Congress and the leftists. Let us take a look at how the organisation that is going to complete a century since its inception has been portrayed by Congress and the media ably aided by the leftist ecosystem.
Connecting RSS to Gandhi’s assassination
In 1948, after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination by Nathuram Godse, the Congress banned the RSS. Without conducting an inquiry, the government arrested RSS Sarsanghchalak MS Golwalkar on February 2, 1948. Two days later, on February 4, the Congress government issued a notification banning the RSS.
The Nehru government’s attempt to implicate and suppress the RSS ultimately failed. After nearly 18 months, the ban on the RSS was lifted at midnight on July 11, 1949. Golwalkar was released from Baitul prison on July 13, 1949, and immediately returned to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur. However, to date, even Rahul Gandhi vilifies the RSS and its “alleged” role in Gandhi’s assassination.
In 2014, addressing an election rally in Maharashtra’s Thane district, Rahul is said to have alleged that the RSS was behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. PTI quoted the Congress leader as saying: “RSS people killed Gandhiji, and today their people (BJP) talk of him…They opposed Sardar Patel and Gandhiji.”
Banned in 1966, the Kapur Commission
In 1966, alongside banning government employees from joining the RSS, Indira Gandhi’s government established the Kapur Commission to investigate Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. The commission, led by retired Supreme Court Justice JL Kapur, examined 101 witnesses and 407 documents before publishing its report in 1969. The Kapur Commission found that the accused were not proven to be RSS members; there was no proof that the RSS had been involved in the killing, nor was there evidence to suggest that the RSS engaged in violent activities against Gandhi or top Congress leaders.
Ban during the Emergency
Once again, trying to link RSS with the Gandhi assassination, Indira Gandhi, who imposed the Emergency on the entire country in 1975, once again banned the RSS, stating RSS instigated the act. Following multiple rounds of negotiations, the ban on the RSS was lifted on March 22, 1977, coinciding with the end of the Emergency.
Post-Babri demolition
In 1992, following the Babri Masjid demolition, another ban attempt was made by the Congress government. The RSS was banned on December 10, 1992, four days after the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya on December 6. However, this ban was short-lived, lasting only until June 4, 1993. The ban was lifted following the findings of the Justice Bahri Commission, which deemed it “unjustified.” A senior Intelligence Bureau officer testified that there was no evidence of RSS pre-planning the mosque’s destruction.
Vilified for wanting Hindu Rashtra
Seculars and, of course, the Congress vilified the RSS and continue to do so to date for their dream of a Hindu Rashtra. However, Congress, whose Indira Gandhi added the word “Secular” to the Preamble, finds this problematic. Hindu “right-wing” are seen as communal and a threat to the “secular” fabric of the nation. The leftists believed that the RSS wanted to “eliminate” minorities just because they dreamed of a Hindu Rashtra. This has been mentioned in the book The RSS: A Menace to India.
Congress blamed RSS for not wanting to revoke Art 377
Article 377 was imposed by the British in 1860, but the Congress blamed RSS for not wanting to revoke it since the organisation was “against homosexuality”. However, the converse was true.
Linking RSS to Gauri Lankesh murder
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made comments linking the RSS to the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh in September 2017. It was alleged that just a day after Lankesh’s death, Rahul told reporters that “anybody who speaks against the ideology of the BJP, against the ideology of the RSS, is pressured, beaten, attacked and even killed”.
Calling RSS a secret organisation
Rahul Gandhi criticised the RSS as a “fundamentalist” and “fascist” organisation that has captured India’s institutions, claiming it seeks to undermine democracy. Speaking at Chatham House in London, he argued that the BJP’s belief in eternal power is misguided. Gandhi called the RSS a secret society. “It’s built along the lines of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the idea is to use the democratic contest to come to power and then subvert the democratic contest afterwards,” he claimed.
Linking RSS & other Hindu organisations to riots and murders in Bharat/”Saffron terror”
Along with Bajrang Dal and the VHP, the RSS has also been linked to murders of missionaries or any anti-Christian riots, murder of Graham Staines and his family, killings of “rationalists” Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi, which leftists were very eagerly pushing suspicion towards “Hindutva” groups for targeting them over hurt Hindu sentiments. The leftists also make use of Swami Aseemanand’s alleged taped interview with The Caravan, where he is said to have claimed that the RSS sanctioned deadly blasts (2006-2008). Swami Aseemanand later denied making these statements.
Connecting Tulsi Gabbard to RSS
The Caravan, a leftist mouthpiece, ran an entire issue on Tulsi Gabbard’s connections with the RSS. They wrote that Gabbard participated in events organised by groups linked to the RSS, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA) and the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), the overseas arm of the RSS. Her appearances at these events have been seen as endorsements of their ideologies. The Caravan article alleges that Tulsi Gabbard received support and campaign donations from individuals and groups linked to the RSS and its affiliates. This includes financial contributions from “Hindu nationalist” groups based in the United States.
The many times Congress took RSS help
During the 1948 violence following partition, ministers in Nehru’s cabinet sought assistance from the RSS. A recently discovered 1947 letter from India’s then-Defence Minister, Sardar Baldev Singh, to Home Minister Sardar Patel revealed an urgent plea for help from the RSS to rescue 20,000 women in Lahore amidst the chaos. Singh emphasised the need for immediate intervention as Hindu and Sikh communities were suffering from severe violence and abductions. He recommended leveraging RSS resources and appointing rescue officers with police and military support to aid in the operations. Additionally, the letter suggested using local informants, including those willing to adopt Islam, to gather intelligence.
Despite Nehru’s usual criticism of the RSS, he occasionally acknowledged their contributions, particularly when Pakistan attacked Jammu and Kashmir shortly after independence, and Sangh volunteers stepped in to assist.
Ambedkar & RSS
Several significant events marked Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s interactions with the RSS. Ambedkar’s election agent was an RSS worker named Shri. Dattopant Thengadi. In the 1952 Madhya Pradesh elections, Ambedkar’s Scheduled Caste Federation allied with the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. Ambedkar’s initial formal encounter with the RSS took place in 1935 at their training camp in Pune, Maharashtra, and he also visited an RSS shakha in Dapoli. In 1939, he attended another RSS training camp in Pune, where he met the RSS founder Dr. K.B. Hedgewar. Hedgewar was notably impressed by the absence of caste discrimination among the volunteers.
In September 1949, RSS chief M.S. Golwalkar expressed gratitude to Ambedkar in Delhi for his assistance in lifting the ban on the RSS, which had been imposed after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. Additionally, in June 1953, senior RSS leaders met Ambedkar in Aurangabad, where Ambedkar requested more information about the RSS’s outreach activities.
Such has been the relationship of the RSS with various political parties, organisations, and political figures. However, it is pretty clear who wants the RSS to have a bad name forever.
