From 17 to 19 September 2018, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief, Dr. Mohan Bhagwat addressed a nearly 1000 strong audience of influential and well–established people of Delhi. An extremely rare kind of phenomenon for the RSS-BJP, the public lecture series was aimed at bringing the RSS to the audience as also to the country on the basis of‘concrete knowledge about the Sangh’ which has now emerged ‘as a force in this country’, as Dr Bhagwat claimed. However a scrutiny shows that the conclave and its lecture series were not just covering up of truths, but dishing out falsehood, half-truths and deliberate distortions camouflaged as truth. Behind the smokescreen of these, the RSS has tried to cover up the horribly dreadful face it carried since its foundation.
The background scene
Now the RSS-BJP holding power of the Union government, can unhesitatingly be equated with inhuman acts of love jihad, cow- vigilantism, lynching putting stamps of child lifting, cow-slaughtering, beef eating etc on the minoritis and dalits.The list is endless:NRC in Assam, pellet and bullet showering on common people by the security forces in Kashmir in the name of curbing terrorists, Ram- mandir issue conveniently revamped now and then spewing venoms of communalism, saffronisation and curbing of autonomy in education, distortion of history and science, destruction of scientific thinking, destruction of all leading institutions of the country or packing those with RSS-BJP men, killing of radical thinkers and rounding up of so-called urban naxalites, generation and circulation of the world’s currently largest number of fake news and so on. All these have left people of the country panic-stricken, though people are increasingly becoming aware of the intent of these and thus turning passive, or even opposing them.
Dr Bhagwat’s views summarized
On such a background, Dr Bhagwat drags the audience to the roots introducing Dr KB Hedgewar as the founder of the RSS and paints him and his organization the RSS as ardent lovers of the country who for its betterment try at Vyakti nirman, that is man-making for it. Dr Bhagwat then defines Hindutva, claimed as propounded by Dr Hedgewar, as ‘all-inclusive’ belief in welfare of individuals equating it with the welfare of all, a new vocabulary for the RSS to camouflage the reality and befool people as well. To elaborate his premise, Dr. Bhagwat emphasizes that ‘ our tradition’ is to ‘recognize’ and ‘respect’ all differences. The Hindutva and the Hindu rashtra, as the RSS conceived, were value-based preaching for ‘Unity among diversity, harmony, sacrifice, restrain and submission’. Sagely, he adds: ‘Satisfaction, self- realization (Swadhyay) and god, you would find everywhere. This is the view which unites us and is the behaviour that is taught in our families through generations after generations, … this is what our culture is made upon through reforms and practices ( sanskaro ki dwara)’. And then he declares : ‘Those communities who had come to India from outside world and after that have become Indians, be they Muslims, Christians or otherwise, must be carrying these practices and habits in their families, had they been able to become real Indians. This is the value-based culture which unites us’. In the words of Bhagwat, “Dr Hedgewar said there is reason” for the fact that, “In our Indian society, there are people who do not call themselves Hindus.” But besides adopting the Hinduness or , Hinduism, “‘there is no other way … to bring unity”. So Hedgewar said clearly that “this Hindustan is a Hindu state . We would organize the Hindu state” (all emphasis added: P Era).
Pretensions, distortions, half-truths and sheer falsehoods galore
Summarized in briefest terms, these ideas turn out to be hollow words, rather full of pretensions, distortions, half-truths and sheer falsehoods. Number one. No doubt, Dr Hedgewar was the founder of the RSS in 1925. But it was in 1923 that Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, later a leader of the Hindu Mahasabha which worked in tandem with the RSS, presented the ideas of Hindutva and Hindu- padpatshahi (Hindu overlordship) in a book by him. And, it was MS Golwalkar, a later RSS chief, who added arrogance and aggression to it to spread its organization widely in the country. See, what kind of venom he spewed! In reference to ‘the Muslims and Christians dwelling in this land’, Golwalkar boastfully pronounced “Together with the change in their faith, gone are the spirit of love and devotion for the nation.” (from Golwalkar’s book Bunch of Thoughts). They are cleraly marked as not Indians. Is it ambiguous at all? Any doubt is cleared from his another book We or Our Nationhood Defined. There Golwalkar wrote: “The foreign races in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment – not even citizen’s rights”. (emphasis added: P Era) This was how Hindutva was expressed and given a foothold as the rabid Hindu communal doctrine. Its proximity with the fascist thoughts is evident in the following eulogy of the Nazi Germany in Golwalkar’s book: “German race-pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up with the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races- the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for Races and Cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for use in Hindusthan to learn and profit by. “ (We or Our Nationhood Defined) And for Vyakti nirman, their leader ABS Munje visited Mussolini’s Italy to learn their fascist methods of training youth with regimentation and military training. The RSS Sakhas (i.e., units) were built up accordingly, on Savarkar-Golwalkar’s ideas and diktats which spoke of India consisting of two nations by Savarkar and Golwalkar clearly standing for ethnic cleansing and submission of ‘foreign races’ to the Hindu race. For organization, the RSS units were based on fruits of Munje’s mission. But Mohan Bhagwat in his three day long speech omits any reference to Savarkar- Golwalkar- Munje, barring a mention of Golwalkar only in the question-answer session on the third day. It may also be mentioned here that the RSS has brought out an edited new version of Golwalkar’s ideas which Dr Bhagwat tried to unconvincingly justify as for presenting Golwalkar’s enduring thoughts and removing remarks of ‘temporary context’.
However, it is Savarkar’s Hindutva and Golwalkar’s vicious fascistic theory elaborating it, upon which the RSS all through opposed the independence movement and were not accepted by people at large. The RSS leaders cannot ignore or erase these truths however hard they may try now. On face of this reality they have now adopted this tactics of omitting Savarkar or Golwalkar, in the main. Besides, as people experience today, all the present activities of the RSS reflect precisely what these Hindutvawadi leaders preached to give effect to. So, the question arises: Is the omission or cursory reference to Golwalkar because of the RSS changing its line? Or, is it shameless suppression and distortion of truths, facts and names that are now disturbing or embarrassing for them and so they wish to keep those below the carpet for now?
Number two. Dr Bhagwat vouched for Dr Hedgewar’s love for country. And the same Hedgewar as the RSS chief, had instructed the Sangh members not to participate in the Salt Satyagraha ( Source: Biography of Dr. Hedgewar by the RSS) which Gandhi had launched in 1930 and in which people took part in masses for the first time in India in the emerging ‘nationalist’ independence movement . In 1942, during the Quit India movement against the British rulers, Savarkar, instructed all Hindu Mahasabha members employed in government offices or elected to local and regional legislative bodies, to attend their office and cooperate fully with the British government. A note of the British government also corroborated that the RSS leaders had met the secretary of the home department and “promised the secretary to encourage members of the Sangh to join the civic guards in greater numbers,” which were nothing but “special” force of the government for “internal security”. While referring to the man-made severe famine engineered by the British rulers in 1942-43, Golwalkar opined that “The evil with today’s political sentimentalism is that its basis is reaction, sorrow and anger, and opposition to the victors forgetting friendliness.” (emphasis added) These were the glowing instances of ‘nationalism’ of the RSS, rather the Hindutvawadis and their opposition to the foreign rule of the British imperialists! In fact Golwalkar clearly held “Anti-Britishism was equated with patriotism and nationalism. This reactionary view has had disastrous effects upon the entire course of the freedom movement, its leaders and the common people.” Are these not enough to attest unambiguously that the RSS was against the national independence movement? Did the RSS ever participate in anti-British nationalist freedom movement? Did they not condemn independence movement as ‘reactionary’, ‘unpatriotic’, as found from the above quote, when thousands of youth and students sacrificed everything and braved bayonets, bullets and gallows? Will it be wrong to conclude that it was this stand of the RSS which could lead Muslim League to emerge in reaction as its off-shoot? In return, both the RSS and the Muslim League, were reportedly pampered, eulogized and even fuelled by the British imperialist rulers, as they proved handy for them to keep Indian people divided. Partition of the country on the flimsy ground of religion was the tragic outcome. But hateful and ferocious communal activities of the RSS did not end even with that.
Number three. What is the RSS brand of inclusivenss? The kind of welfare it prescribes for the non-Hindu community, is evident from Golwalkar’s words quoted above; the non-Hindus ‘must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or … stay …. wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, … not even citizen’s rights’. This is ‘the value-based culture’ of the Hindutvawadis ‘which unites us’, ‘there is no other way … to bring unity’. The sugar-coated words of respect, harmony etc., from Dr Bhagwat then conceal veiled diktats, coating being meant for meeting demands of situation. Be Hindu to be an Indian, this is the logic of the RSS! This is the essence of “sacrifice, restrain and submission” for the non-Hindus, the minorities to give effect to “diversity and harmony” for the majority, the Hindus to boast of ! Is it anything other than the worst form of Hindu communalism and its imposition on the minorities?
Delhi conclave was held on a background narrated briefly earlier. Today, the Hindutvawadi aggressiveness and its rabid anti-Muslim communalism, are, to a great extent, nakedly exposed to the people, including the intelligentsia. So the RSS had to make attempts to find newer ways and means to push through their ideology. This was the demand of the present situation. They had to harp a more persuasive, mellowed down tone for the purpose. It is no change of mind or heart or line. It is a somersault which they undertake as a larger well-meaning section of the Hindu population can not accept the atrocities of the Hindutvawadi brigade on good faith. But underneath all niceties of expression remains the vicious RSS current. Their leaders announced and still announce : “We would organize the Hindu state”. What could be its shape can be guessed from the recent incidents, such as killing of Akhlaq allegedly for beef-eating or from the instance given below. The village panchayat of Titoli, a village quite near the national capital, has imposed a ban on public namaaz, the community prayer of the Muslims, has forbidden 800 odd Muslim residents from keeping beards and has ordered them to choose only Hindu names for their children. It has taken over a Muslim graveyard, Waqf property and instead provided a piece of land far away from the village. Think of it! The Hindu rashtra is still only in thoughts! What would happen if it really comes true? Dr Bhagwat said “ We don’t want Sangh domination”. Does not the reality bring out that he is telling lies ? (Source: https:// www. newsclick.in/ many-silences-mohan-bhagwat : 28 September 2018)
The votaries of Hinduism and Manu –Sanhita , including their ideologue Golwalkar do not find ‘any evidence of caste system disturbing the social unity’. But in reality they try even to withdraw permission to use books by Kancha Ilaiah from the Political Science course of the Delhi university, because the writer is one of the leading representatives of studies on dalits, and categorically underlines the history of Hinduism as a history of the Brahminic sect guided by the diktats of Manu- Sanhita (an epitome of casteist thoughts), never caring to include the history of the dalits and other so-called lower castes. This, and there are many such instances show how the flag-bearers of Vasudhaivakutumbakam using the sugar-coated words of universal brotherhood, trample upon brotherhood in their own land. As a face-saving effort to the provabis and pratisthits present in the Delhi conclave Dr Bhagwat mumbled that caste “victimisation exists in our society”, and emphasized that laws be made and implemented properly and are not exploited and misused. Look, he could not escape. He had to admit that neither Hindutva was all-inclusive, it harbours caste division and causes victimization of so-called lower castes. Nor there is any dearth of laws which are being ‘exploited’!
History of the RSS is the history of regimentation based on deceit, savagery, hatred
Today, what is happening around is horrific. Some dalit youth carry dead cows. Scavenging is their livelihood to leave the village clean. A RSS-incited frenzied mob lynch them on allegation of killing cows. On alleged charges of loving a Hindu girl a migrant Muslim labour from West Bengal is beaten to death in public in Rajasthan. The whole act is video-photographed and posted in social media. The killer proudly announced his act of killing a minority man as noble. Later, it was found that the man committed a cold-blooded, pre-planned murder and the charge of loving a Hindu girl was simply false. Akhlaq of Dadri village in UP has been referred above; he was lynched by an irate mob inside his residence on charges of keeping and eating beef. It came out on investigation that the stuff was mutton, no beef. Efforts were made to change the result of investigation. In the same UP, very recently a mob in frenzy led by a local BJP leader killed a police officer and another youth when the officer tried to prevent the mob from attacking people shifting dead cows. A BJP minister audaciously made a comment that people are bothered about killing of two men, but not of so many cows. How the cows died, naturally or not, was no concern for him. Such ghastly brute incidents go on recurring with the administration, including the Prime minister keeping meaningful silence or even taking side for the killers. And the provocateurs or the killers turn out invariably to be the RSS-BJP activists or belonging to their fringe organizations like Bajrang Dal etc. People do no longer expect that the ruling combine will hold the moral responsibility for these acts! Rather it has become the order of the day in this regime, that the RSS-BJP will always fabricate charges against their perceived enemy, will attack them, kill them with impunity and then leave no stone unturned to prove the innocence of the offenders. Such was the case with the Gujarat pogrom where minority community people were brutally butchered or with infamous ‘encounters’ like that of killing of Shorabuddin where accused are bluntly acquitted helped by the false report of the CBI and earlier an investigating judge of that case mysteriously died. Now and then the RSS-BJP ignite communal issues simply to make inroad into the masses who are victims of thousand and one confusions, for instance in Gujarat where they became successful to plant a prolonged BJP rule. Since their foundation they seemed to be baying for blood of people of other religious communities with worst kind of communal hatred towards them, committing numberless horrifying communal attacks all over the country unleashed with extreme brutality through perpetrating gruesome killing, loot, arson, rape and all such heinous and cruel acts without any remorse and without sparing any, even child, old or women. They were so ruthless and mindless in their acts that they did not hesitate to rape women brutally, to rape even a pregnant woman, rip open her womb and bring out the foetus at the tip of a trident and dance with that as in Gujarat pogrom. They felt no compunction to cut children into two halves throwing them on swords. Like swarms of locusts they rode on and ravaged the historic Babri mosque . Such were their Hindu religious performances! In sum and substance, the RSS-BJP or their close allies in the Hindutvawadi brigade have all through acted true to the training they had been given, as a lethally armed, blood-thirsty regimented force. They acted on any frenzied call of their leader and that too simply on blind submission and unquestioning faith mingled with rabid hatred and worst kind of communally charged killing instinct against their perceived enemy, particularly the Muslims. Hence always the incidents exposed bitter hate campaign based upon falsehood, treachery and unrepentant animosity. As a routine, the RSS leaders tended to shift the onus on to the Muslims.
One must not forget that the RSS was founded at a time when the country was rising up to prepare for a countrywide nationalist movement against the foreign rulers, the British imperialists, who had established a powerful colonial rule to exploit the people and the resources of this land. It was the time, when Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh had courageously pronounced that he was an atheist and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose declared that religion is a private affair of individuals, communalism is an enemy which must be fought against and politics was to be guided by economic, political and scientific theories. It was also a time, when the world had seen the rise of the first socialist state on the strength of invincible ideology of Marxism-Leninism and under its impact communist or leftist movement was developing in different countries including India. At all this, not only the imperialist rulers, even the national bourgeoisie of this country who wanted to gain power from the imperialists to establish its own rule of exploitation had become apprehensive of the working class revolution. They preferred religious thinking instead of scientific thinking and strongly opposed revolutionary line in the freedom struggle. The nationalism they stood for was Sarba dharma samannoy, which virtually became Hindu-religion oriented nationalism. As it was dominated by so-called upper caste Hindus, it not only alienated the Muslims, but also the so-called lower caste Hindus. In spite of all these limitations, powerful independence movement developed , along with the revolutionary current gaining momentum. This made the British rulers panicky and they applied divide and rule policy. Thus the RSS, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim league acted as the means to serve the British imperialists.
It is true that despite all its weaknesses, at the impact of the independence movement, the RSS or the Hindutvawadis could not make their desired headway. Still they did exist, with animosity towards their perceived enemies in their blood, as it appeared. And, as mentioned above, they preferred to eulogize Nazis of Germany the epitome of brutality and anti-semitism and followed fascist forces of Mussolini . To draw in new recruits, particularly the youth, they posed as social workers. They projected their leaders as all powerful and prophetic engaged in bringing social good as well as in vyakti nirman, man-making, as Dr. Bhagwat indicated. From behind the smokescreen of these innocuous social activities and religious poses they carried on building up brigades of fanatic muscle power to act virtually as fascist storm-troopers on minority communities. The savagery of these communal attacks remained much unknown to people at large of the country, because the British rulers used these to give effect to their infamous divide and rule policy and even within the main- stream politics the RSS could pick up sympathisers. In consequence, the victims of the RSS had such experiences that were not to be erased even across generations.
RSS and politics
With such a background the RSS leaders, past or present not excluding Dr. Bhagwat in the Delhi conclave, claimed or claim, that right from inception the Sangh had been conscious to stay away from electoral politics. No office bearer of the Sangh is allowed to be a member of any political party and is supposed to stay away from politics. This again is a Goebblesian technique of catering false ideas with ulterior motive. Even during the independence struggle, in 1940 Subhas Chandra Bose warned people of the country “Hindu Mahasabha has sent sannyasis and sannyasinis to solicit votes with tridents in hand. Every Hindu bends his head on seeing saffron cloth and trident. Hindu Mahasabha has appeared in the scene by taking advantage of and defiling religion…isolate these traitors from the national life. Do not listen to them.” (Speech at Jhargram)In the present reality, under the present BJP-led Union and state governments not only top political leaders, even people at the helm of important socio-cultural-economic organizations are handpicked from among the RSS activists and are installed without caring for any established and practised norms. And this precisely proves Dr Bhagwat’s claim a lie, that ‘we don’t specifically work towards increasing our influence. It happens by itself.’ For that the RSS- BJP needed RSS activists like Narendra Modi –Amit Shah take the rein of the country and thereafter they destroy even the institutions that still exist as vestiges of democracy, trample the minimum democratic norms that persist despite their rampant erosion in the country during these years of independence. So the RSS was the ladder for the BJP to rise to political power, now the RSS-BJP are acting to retain power by all means, fair or foul.
To justify the apolitical character of the RSS and why the BJP is replete with RSS activists, Dr Bhagwat says that : “We don’t ask the Swayamsevaks to work for any specific party”. Again a deceptive statement which hides the fact that the RSS and the BJP are the two sides of the same coin. On one side they maintain a face of so-called social activities under cover of which they train their sakhas with weaponry and regimentation. On the other side, they maintain the BJP as its political outfit. This is a technique they had followed in the past, and are following as yet with increased virulence.
Dr Bhagwat adds: “Though we stay away from politics, we do have views regarding national policies and if we have the strength, we pursue those policies with that strength. And we don’t do it secretly but in full public attention.” Did Dr. Bhagwat take the Delhi elites, or for that matter the countrymen, as such nincompoops as not to note the contradictions and worst deceptions underlying these utterances? Do the RSS leaders meet the political leaders merely in courtesy calls, who in turn, are presently none but RSS men themselves? Why do they keep their national policies, which are nothing but political policies, concealed up in their sleeves to bring out as and when needed?
BJP-RSS emerge as favoured subservient agent of the ruling monopolists
So the conclave contained nothing but tricks to mislead and misguide people concealing the real design; not anything but a continuity of a history of an organization which betrayed the nation right from their inception, which thrived upon falsehood, deception, hatred, even ferocious animosity towards their perceived enemy, defined on religion. It is for no love of religion. It is for power.
Presently parliamentary democracy in this Indian capitalist state is the facade from behind which the ruling monopolists continue, consolidate and strengthen their class rule with the elected government acting as their trusted subservient political manager. When the Congress-led UPA government had been fast losing its hold over people as its blatantly pro-monopolist anti-people policies were aggravating crises in people’s life, the ruling class, the monopolists stood behind the BJP, led by Narendra Modi, with all supports , from finance to propaganda. Modi-led BJP government in Gujarat along with the RSS, perpetrating administration-backed ghastly pogrom against the Muslims had proved their efficiency in creating virtually a deep vertical cleavage among the masses preventing them from standing united against capitalist exploitation and oppression. With Modi in Delhi, the RSS and the BJP found a smooth road for rising to a force to reckon with, as Dr Bhagwat has described in his speech.
But the Indian capitalism, inalienable part of the crisis-ridden world capitalism, suffers from intense all-out crisis. Amidst that, the pro-monopolist policies of the Modi government to help the monopolists reap their maximum harvest through earning maximum profit, have fleeced the common toiling people to their skeleton. This is giving birth to increasing resentment and wrath in them. These have caused the ruling RSS-BJP combine to face an uncertain future with the next parliamentary election in immediate view. They needed a revamping of their image and retain their power to serve the ruling class, the monopolist for pelf and position. This is why they chose this conclave as one of their means.
Mohan Bhagwat’s lecture and fascism
As mentioned the whole conclave was conducted with a tone of moderation, a mellowed down approach of persuasion that appeared to attract as large a target as possible. So with overt or covert means, with distorted truths, half-truths, camouflages, deceptions the RSS chief tried to drive their points home into the people. He avoided unpleasant issues that may harm their cause. So Savarkar- Golwalkar-Munje were outwardly brushed aside. Instead, with careful cunning Dr Bhagwat praised Congress for their role in independence struggle, mentioned Rabindranath Tagore , even Dr Abdul Kalam, ending with mentioning of MN Roy or a the then CPI leader of Vidarbha. The motive, unspoken though, was clear: to make impression upon as large section of the population as possible on how democratic the RSS was and is.
It is here that lies the greatest danger. To realize its significance in proper light we need to digress to the invaluable discourse on fascism, presented by Comrade Shibdas Ghosh, the founder General Secretary of our Party SUCI (C) and one of the eminent Marxist thinkers. In his elaboration, he showed that fascism is a historically conditioned form of counter-revolution, designed to save the crisis-ridden capitalist order from collapse in the face of mounting dissatisfaction of the people against the existing system. It is characterized by a dual policy of ruthless suppression and persuasion or deception.
In India today, on one hand, with the Prime Minister Modi turning mute on any unwarranted occasion, the RSS-BJP combine is carrying out their Hindutvawadi agenda that include unabashed communal conflagration leading into attacks upon people of the minority communities and other marginalized sections of people. If and when, that is not impossible, the combine releases heinous hate campaign. All this aims at keeping the toiling people divided even mutually warring, unable to put up a united face against the ruling monopolists. On the other hand attacks on secular scientific bent of mind through unbridled saffronization of education and promotion of obscurantism, bigotry, etc., tend to dehumanize the common people pushing them into the dungeons of blindness, faith and submission. These provide the ground upon which fascism finds the right soil to grow upon. It is through persuasion or deception of such dehumanized people, that the RSS-BJP combine aim at garnering support of unsuspecting and politically unconscious rather confused masses who tend to act on blind faith and unscientific irrational ideas and concepts. And based upon that the ruling class, the monopolists, can carry out the fascist plans and programmes befooling the masses by the slogans of development, inclusiveness, etc. Dr. Mohan Bhagwat’s Delhi speech bears all these characteristics. It vouches for the same rabid communal RSS ideology of Hindutvawadi stalwarts from behind all sugar-coated words told or unpleasing words left untold.
Absence of left-democratic movement helped RSS grow to this frightful shape
But there is another question still unanswered. Here are the forces ruling the country which wield their power and boastfully declare everybody in the country must be Hindu, we will make it, if necessary we will coerce, if you do not yield to our power we will exterminate you. And such audacity is virtually going unchallenged. Why? Even during the anti-imperialist freedom movement, with so many drawbacks, such forces could not rise with this venom. Had there been such an ambience in the country, it is sure that struggling people would have thrown these forces into isolation and thus would have wiped them out. Instead, these forces are clamouring of democracy, theatrically bending to touch the ground at the doorstep of the Parliament and after entering it are wielding the swords of discrimination, division even annihilation of their perceived enemy, the Muslims. How could they? With independence, bourgeois rule of the Indian monopolists has been established to take deep roots in course of these years. Even for a decade after independence, at the impacts of the independence movement as well as the glorious international communist movement, there were fairly strong people’s movements on their burning problems of life and livelihood. The undivided CPI, going by the signboard of communism and enjoying the warmth of the glories of communist movement, used to come forward as the big left party to lead the masses in their movement. But thereafter grown into Goliath with the mass support, it went into the slumber of parliamentary politics. Along with its later fractions, like CPI(M) and other faithful allies, the so-called communist party started dreaming of enjoying parliamentary power and associated pelf. Thenceforth their politics were bogged into the quagmire of treating masses as vote-bank, energizing them for vote-battles and if successful, forgetting the battles and serve the master, the monopolist, to ensure the stay in the corridor of powers. For that they could form electoral alliance with anybody, call the Congress secular despite its being the architect of so many communal riots, even made alliances with the BJP if necessary. This parliamentary opportunistic politics stood as the stumbling block in the way of and foiled development of any viable left and democratic combination to uphold people’s causes and demands, of which one of the prime demands was an intense battle against the rising Hindutvawad.
The arch-communal force which is also venomously anti-communist took the full advantage of this weakness of left and democratic forces. They silently spread their tentacles into the land and its people. The Congress, once banned the RSS for murdering Gandhi and then shortly afterwards withdrew the ban. It even pampered the RSS, tried to use the Viswa Hindu Parishad to catch hold of majority votes; unlocked the Babari Mosque to sow the seeds of Ram mandir controversy. It all helped the RSS-BJP gain ground.
The task ahead
No sensible person can let this fascist menace , a killing force, be it under any cloak, carry on their killing spree with impunity. It must be thwarted by any means — sensible, rational and purposive. At the same time, it cannot be missed that a win or loss in election, even on a massive scale, would not be enough to wipe out the influence of this force from the mindset of toiling people, that the RSS-BJP could have left by this time. It requires as the only course, on one hand to develop powerful anti-fascist movement combining all the forces who can be united, and on the other hand, to initiate, organize and strengthen working class struggles and democratic mass movements on the edifice of the ideology and culture of Marxism- Leninism along with its developed understanding at this age of utterly reactionary decadent capitalist system embodied in Comrade Shibdas Ghosh Thought. Only that ideology and culture can serve as the bulwark for the exploited, oppressed people to fight the rising fascist menace convincingly and effectively and ultimately ensure the overthrow of the exploitative capitalist system. The sooner people realize this truth the better. This is the crying need of the present critical hour!
