Change Or Camouflage?

The RSS shrugs off M.S. Golwalkars take on minorities. Is it evolution or pre-poll tactics?

- Pratul Sharma

IN JUNE THIS year, former president Pranab Mukherjee did the unthinkable. He accepted the invitation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—a hindutva organisation reviled by the Congress, and more recently by its president Rahul Gandhi—visited its Nagpur headquarters, and addressed a gathering. Though he told the gathering that Indian ethos stood for tolerance and pluralism, Mukherjee’s visit sent out a subtle message against political untouchability. As a result, the RSS’s stock grew instantly.

Last week, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat spoke extempore during a three-day lecture series held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. He addressed the concerns about the 93-year-old organisation’s past, its secretive style of working, and also about a possible course correction. Bhagwat appeared to distance the sangh from its political progeny, and all but disowned M.S. Golwalkar’s controversial views on Muslims and Christians. Bhagwat said, “If we do not accept Muslims, it is not hindutva.... Hindutva is Indianness and inclusion.” It was the first time that Muslims were given a space within the definition of hindutva. Golwalkar—the RSS’s second and longest-serving chief— had painted them unpatriotic and alien to the Indian ethos in his book, Bunch of Thoughts.

Did the sangh drop the baggage to change with the times? “Without com-promising on the fundamentals, he has presented the RSS to a larger audience as an acceptable and progressive organisation,” said Prafulla Ketkar, editor of the Organiser, the RSS mouthpiece.