WR Desk: Nathuram Godse, a pracharak trained by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), shot the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, three times at point-blank range. He did so because Gandhi believed India belonged to people of all religions. By contrast, Godse and his parent organizations, the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha, believed the country belonged only to Hindus. Hatred spread against Gandhi and the Indian national movement culminated in his assassination. Because of this crime, India’s then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Sardar Patel, banned the RSS in 1948. He later wrote, “All their speeches were full of hatred. The ultimate result of this poison was that the country had to sacrifice Gandhiji’s invaluable life.” The ban was lifted after the Sangh promised to adopt a written constitution and function only as a cultural organisation.
Yet the RSS remains a political body behind the facade of a cultural organization. It first established the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and then played a key role in founding the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which now runs the government at the Centre and in several states.
During the last few years, Congress has tried to correct this anomaly, and Rahul Gandhi in particular has been raising logical and lawful questions regarding the RSS. He had said that people associated with the RSS were responsible for Gandhiji’s assassination, for which a case was filed against him. As part of this policy of taking on the RSS, Karnataka’s Home Minister Priyank Kharge has now asked the RSS to register itself and be accountable to the Indian state.
Not surprisingly, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recently recommended that the US government impose targeted sanctions on the RSS. The proposed measures include freezing the organization’s assets and denying visas to its members.
It is not surprising that the demand for the RSS’s registration is being raised. What is surprising is why this demand was not raised earlier. Many government officials sympathetic to the RSS’s ideology are engaged in protecting its interests. The rules related to donations and expenditures alone should be the biggest reason for making registration mandatory. Similarly, attention should also be paid to the RSS carrying out political activities while claiming to be a cultural organization.
Along with this, the issue of non-compliance with the promises made while requesting the lifting of the ban should also be kept in mind. The time has come to give importance to the Indian Constitution and Indian nationalism and to ask not only the RSS but also all other such organizations, for whom it is required, to register themselves.