Vain RSS-BJP bid to shed ‘Hindu only’ image

The RSS and BJP are apparently keen to change their “Hindu-only” and “Brahmin-Bania” image and want to project themselves as organizations open to all Indians. This was indicated first by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat when he said recently that all Indians, including Muslims and Christians, were Hindus. And later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, asked BJP leaders at the party’s National Executive meeting, which concluded on July 3, to reach out to “deprived and downtrodden sections” in communities other than Hindus. BJP sources are reported to have said that it was a message to communities like Pasmanda (backward) Muslims in UP and Bihar.

Just around the time when Mr. Modi was making this appeal at the BJP executive committee’s meeting, however, a panchayat held at Manesar on July 3, decided at the instance of its Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) members to boycott the “Muslim shopkeepers and vendors”. Muslim refugees in the village and surrounding areas were running many juice shops and saloons under “Hindu names and names of Hindu deities” as part of a conspiracy.

The Indian Express (July 4) quotes Mr. Devender Singh, General Secretary of the Manesar VHP, to have said that the panchayat had been called on behalf of the “Hindu society” to raise their voice against growing “religious fundamentalism” and “jihadist forces” that have taken root in the country.

According to the daily, Mr. Devender Singh claimed: “Hindus are being killed. Many Rohingya, Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis are illegally staying in Gurgaon and Manesar by hiding their real identities. They have set up businesses in various sectors. We have given the administration a week’s time to probe this and identify those with illegal documents. How did they get their IDs made? Who is funding them? This is a threat to our safety. If there is no action, then Hindu society will take action. …”

He went on to say: “Economic boycott is the only solution. Their shops are not for business or employment. This is part of jihad. Committees need to be formed in villages that can discuss and take action.”

Many other speakers endorsed the boycott call. “We need to pledge to not avail their services or purchase products from Muslim shopkeepers. There has to be a complete boycott. Boycott halal-certified products. Do not get a haircut in their saloons, do not rent them your houses, do not buy fruits from their shops,” said another Manesar resident.

Haryana is a BJP-ruled State. Its government took no firm action when Gurugram VHP men protested and tried to stop the offering of Friday namaz by the Muslims on the roadside or in the parks. Nor did the Centre take any action when some Hindu saints held a conference at Haridwar and called upon Hindus to buy firearms and kill all the Muslims in the country.

One appreciates the desire of RSS-BJP leadership to shed their “Hindu only” image but to do that, they need to first discuss the issues in their organizations and re-educate and reorient their swayamsevaks and members so that the common members of the RSS-BJP and their front organizations reach out to not only “Pasmanda Muslims” but all other communities and give up their anti- Muslim and anti-Christian bias. If they can do that, they will do one better than the Congress, which has so far reached out to only high-caste Muslims educated either in universities or in Deoband and Bareilly seminaries. Pasmanda Muslims have so far been close only to regional parties like the Socialist Party in UP and RJD in Bihar.

Unless that is done, the RSS and BJP cannot hope to shed their “Hindu only” image, though they may give token representation to Muslims by including a couple of Hinduised Muslims in the Cabinet and appointing a Hinduised educated tribal lady as the country’s President.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – not unlike the Congress — got Mr. Ram Nath Kovind (a Dalit) elected as President of India, but did that help reduce the pain and sufferings of the Scheduled Castes in any way? It has two Hinduised Muslim faces in the Cabinet, but has that helped reduce the anti-Muslim violence of RSS-Bajrang Dal-led Hindu senas? It has now proposed the name of Ms. Draupadi Murmu, a tribal woman leader, for the post. She is likely to be elected, but would that help improve the lives of the tribals in any manner?

The tribal people are not Hindus and profess animist religions. The RSS, however, calls them Vanavasis and has been trying to Hindu-ise them for a long time. Hindus, too, were tribals at some stage who got settled in villages, towns, and cities in course of time. The caste-Gotra system and Varnashram dharma professed and practiced by them define only the settled tribes.

Be that as it may, the progress made by the developed settled urban and rural society has not helped the tribal communities, though some of them have settled in villages, too, in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, and other states. They continue to lead their tribal life in forests and on hills. They suffer from many health problems but not much has so far been done to help them and provide them with medical and other required services and facilities.

Ms. Draupadi Murmu was born in a Santhal tribe in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district. The Santhals’ religion is Sarna, but she is a Vaishnava Hindu presumably because her father was converted as one by an RSS front organization. She is a well-educated scholar, an experienced politician, and a former Governor. She has always been above controversies and is a devotee of Lord Krishna and a Brahmakumari. She will surely make a good President, but her election is unlikely to affect the living conditions of the tribal communities.

If the RSS-BJP really want to shed their “Hindu only” and “Brahmin- Bania” image, they need to give up this tokenism and, instead, take real steps to improve the living conditions and social status of Dalits, Pasmanda Muslims, and tribal communities. Casteism has been the bane of Hindu society and has since affected the Muslim community, too. Almost all political parties have exploited it, but hardly done anything to “annihilate” it notwithstanding their eulogies of and tributes to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

What is required is a real end to religious bigotry and casteism in any form. If the BJP can do that under the leadership of Mr. Modi, it will surely emerge as a more secular party than the Congress and a genuine party of not only Hindus but all Indians. Mere tokenism will only exacerbate the problem. – INDIA NEWS STREAM