The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is celebrating its centenary, is arguably the most powerful organization in the country today. In his Independence Day speech at the Red Fort last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, himself a former RSS pracharak, described his parent organization as the largest voluntary organization in the world. Despite having a large following and influence, the RSS shows its strength not through ideological superiority, but through its heft over the central government and the ability to influence the country's power structures in a roundabout way. The RSS has been trying to implement its agendas not only at the administrative level, but also in the judiciary, police, universities, cultural and constitutional institutions, and the media from time to time.
The RSS has left its mark in communal riots in India since its inception. The organisation was first banned after it was the subject of accusation of assassinating the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. The RSS has played a role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid, ignoring court orders and constitutional principles, and in various anti-Muslim and anti-Christian communal riots and mob violence that have taken place in the country. An organisation that has been keeping a large section of the population in its hold by spreading false narratives and creating communal polarization among the people through the media and new media, the outfit has in recent months suffered the most miserable defeat in its century-long history.
While the legendary struggle waged by the student and youth community of the country, unfazed by government repression, false narratives and deceit achieved victory, it was the RSS that lost. The person they had appointed as the Education Minister to implement the organization's educational agenda had no option but to resign. Even though another Swayamsevak was installed in that chair and the agenda continued, the blow of that resignation was very great.
One of the main results of this struggle is that the RSS leadership has come to the realization that despite having 88,949 shakhas across the country, millions of members of all ages, and influence in all sectors, the rising generation of the country is not one to be trifled with. Therefore, wasting no time, the organisation set up a platform to hold a dialogue with representatives of the new generation. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat called more than 2,000 students aged between 15 and 19 from different parts of the country in Mumbai and spoke to them. A video of Bhagwat showing the hand gesture used by the new generation to indicate that they have understood something ("Clock it") was widely celebrated in Sangh Parivar circles.
However, after the debate, the students openly told the media that the practice of creating a sectarian interpretation of everything without discussing the real problems of the people will no longer hold water. They said that the parents who voted in the last elections, trapped in communal narratives, made a mistake and the new generation will not be complicit in that mistake.
Although Bhagwat did not disown the Kerala Sangh Parivar ideologue who made a remark that protesters at Jantar Mantar should be shot dead and that women who came to protest there liked to be raped, he opined that if today's young generation joins the protest, they should not be seen as anti-national and that protest is a democratic way. He added that people come forward to protest only when other options are closed, and that the Gen Z generation is not anti-national and that they respond more honestly and sincerely about patriotism and service than our generation. Even after Bhagwat said that, Sangh Parivar cadres are going after the protesters, especially the girls, with rape threats. The promise taken by the ministers in public as a condition to the ending the Jantar Mantar protests that there will be no cases against the protesters, has not been fully honoured.
Although the RSS chief showed a hand gesture to the youth to indicate that he understood everything, the 'patriotism certificate' that he gave tells that he did not understand anything. The certificate of the Sangh Parivar, which divides people along communal lines, is not sought by any community of the country, least of all by Gen Z. Although the Sarsanghchalak did not say the truth that this is an organization that did not participate in the freedom struggle and was not willing to hoist the Indian national flag for decades after independence, everyone who has read the political history of the country knows that. He may have forgotten at some point that he is the head of an organization that is not even willing to register and operate under the laws of the country even after a hundred years.
Let alone judging and judging others, will the RSS be prepared to get registered, abide by the rules, and work as a nation by eschewing communal and sectarian thinking? In any case, until then wouldn't it be better for Bhagwat to keep that certificate in his pocket!