Friday, February 07, 2014

14 Myths about RSS : writes Kiran Kumar S

14 Myths about RSS : writes Kiran Kumar S
Today, I saw twitter trending #NationalistRSS in India. Social media has been a powerful medium in exposing the sinister campaign against RSS.
While reviewing some of the tweets by anti RSS propagandists, I felt it is necessary to expose some of the popular myths about RSS. A lot of people are blindly ranting against Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh, without getting proper information. You can’t change everyone, but at least you can put some facts on the table. So here we go.. Note that these are not the official statements of RSS, but that of general social media population in India today. Full credit to the original thinkers and the original photographers, for the information presented here onwards.
Myth 1: RSS Killed Gandhi.
Fact 1: Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. Godse had left RSS in 1930s itself. This has been reiterated countless number of times by RSS, and the recent one is from December 2010, when Ram Madhav of RSS claimed court records clearly showing RSS had nothing to do with Gandhi’s murder. Justice Kapur Commission Report clearly says:“RSS as such were not responsible for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, meaning thereby that one could not name the organisation as such as being responsible for that most diabolical crime, the murder of the apostle of peace. It has not been proved that they (the accused) were members of the RSS”
Also, Nathuram, the convict was hanged within months, bringing justice to the whole incident. Blaming RSS for Gandhi’s murder just because Godse was a former member of RSS, is like blaming Congress for Muslim League’s mass murder and atrocities during Partition, because Jinnah was a member of Congress earlier. Jinnah was a member of Congress party between 1906 and 1920. So someone who was a member of Congress for long 14 years, was instrumental in inciting Direct Action Day and other mass atrocities against Hindus, resulting in 1000s of deaths. Will today’s Sonia Gandhi’s Congress claim responsibility for all the wrong doings of Jinnah, including breaking up an age old civilization resulting in millions of deaths?
Myth 2: Sardar Patel disliked RSS.
Fact 2: Sardar Patel had to take action in 1948 due to political pressure from “secular” Nehru and group. But when the ban on RSS was lifted, read Sardar’s letters to Guruji, the RSS chief. Patel was the happiest man then! All the bans till date on RSS, including the ones after Sardar’s death, are purely the hate that Congress party nurturers for RSS. Everyone knows that RSS does not negotiate with vote bank politics, corruption or country’s soverignty. If the same yard stick was used against Congress, SP or other parties, they all should have been banned for the violence of their cadres, or the deadly riots their governments failed to stop (and in some cases helped rioters like in 1984) over the years.  Here is a partial list of nearly 150 incidents of Congress violence. If for each riot or disturbance Congress party was banned, that number would have easily gone beyond Sachin Tendulkar’s international century count!
Myth 3: RSS is anti national.
Fact 3: RSS is the most nationalistic organization in India. In fact, even the most bitter enemy of RSS, Jawaharlal Nehru, invited RSS to come participate in the 1963 Republic day parade. 3500 Swayamsevaks marched on that day, in their typical Gana Vesha. During his final years, Nehru realized the patriotic pulse of RSS, that too only when his Congress party’s foreign policy went seriously wrong resulting in a humiliating defeat at the hands of China. It was RSS that helped Indian soldiers and civilians greatly in 1962, for which even Nehru was forced to invite them to be a part of 1963 Republic Day parade. I am sure the icon of secularism, Nehru would not invite an anti national organization to march with Indian army during republic day. In fact, the so-called secular folks like members of Indian communist parties, were busy raising donations for India’s enemy China during 1962 war! During the 1965 Indo-Pak war PM Shastri requested nationalist RSS to help control traffic in Delhi so policemen could be freed for defence duties. When Pakistanis were trying to take over Jammu and Kashmir, it was swayamsevaks who cleared the snow, so that Indian air force could land their aircrafts.
Myth 4: RSS is fundamentalist.
Fact 4: RSS is pro India, pro Hindutva. RSS’ ideology says that there are only two kinds of Hindus in India. Those who are Hindu today and those who were Hindus yesterday. That makes every single human in India (and rest of Indian subcontinent), Hindus by culture, ancestry and tradition. That is the Hindut-va (Hindu essence). Tva in Sanskrit means characteristic, essence or hood – like Bhratrutva (brotherhood), Maatrutva (motherhood), Shatrutva (Enmity) and so on. RSS never preaches any religious doctrine using any sacred book with the eventual goal of converting everyone to that doctrine 100%. RSS does not believe in converting anyone to its “religion”. So calling such organization fundamentalist is silly. If at all RSS has any fundamentals, it is that of calling India as Bharat, and treating her as the mother of every single human in Indian subcontinent. In fact, RSS supports uniform civil code in India, meaning one type of marriage/divorce/inheritance laws for ALL citizen, which is opposed by so called progressive parties like Communists and Congress!
Myth 5: RSS is fascist and a terrorist organization.
Fact 5: When you show the long list of social service organizations that are a part of Sangh Parivar (family), the favourite line of Jihad supporters is that Jamat ud Da’wah also does social service. But they don’t understand the basics that RSS does not preach violence in any of its shakha. It only teaches people to be proud of India’s glorious 5000+ years culture and tradition. It teaches swayamsevaks (volunteers for the nation), self defence. Every human on this planet has the right to defend himself or herself. RSS never advocated for killing or converting “non-believers”, like Jihadi terrorists or radical evangelicals do. If any person who claims to be associated with RSS is convicted of any crime, RSS won’t play communal or victim card. RSS believes in law taking its own course and punishment for anyone who violates law, unlike Congress party that still supports a convict Lalu Yadav or those charged with mass murder like Sajjan Kumar, or those caught giving genocidal “15 minutes” hate speeches like Akbaruddin Owaisi. While Nehru was unable to stop the blood shed during partition, it was the RSS that organised over 3000 relief camps for the Hindu Refugees from Pakistan after the Partition. In short, every effort to frame RSS to a fictional “Hindutva terror” or “Saffron terror” has failed till date. Here is one such example.
Myth 6: RSS is only for Hindu males.
Fact 6: This is the favourite line of ignoramus feminists. There are two kinds of RSS setups. Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh for males, and Rastra Sevika Samiti for females. Both are thriving in India for decades. Both take out marches, celebrate India’s heritage festivals and glorify India’s national Hindutva icons.
Myth 7: RSS is anti Muslim and RSS is anti Christian.
Fact 7: RSS treats Muslims, Christians and everyone else in India, irrespective of caste and creed as cultural Hindus. Hindutva is an all encompassing ideology of RSS. This is the reason why RSS never has RSS Muslim shakha (daily assembly) or RSS Christian shakha. Anyone can become a member of RSS as long as they are ready to respect Bharat Mata (Mother India). RSS is against only those whose work against India’s soverignty and heritage. In the famous Ranganathacharya Agnihotri case,  “Primafacie the RSS is a non-political cultural organization without any hatred or ill will towards non-Hindus”, declared Karnataka High Court (then Mysore HC).



Myth 8: RSS is for Brahmins, Kshatriyas and other upper caste Hindus only.
Fact 8: Totally wrong. RSS has no caste system at all. It treats every single member, be it male or female, as equal. In fact, even Mahatma Gandhi had applauded RSS’ casteless setup 7 decades ago. All RSS requires from a volunteer, is respecting Bharat Mata (Mother India) as “vatsale, Maatru bhoome“.
Myth 9: RSS was anti Sikh in 1984 riots.
Fact 9: Even the most staunch Sikh supporters of 1984 time, won’t claim such things. Read Kushwant Singh’s writeup. In fact, RSS was instrumental in helping Sikhs in large numbers when Congress party’s murderers went on rampage to kill, and their leader Rajiv Gandhi failed to stop the mass killing.
Myth 10: Organizations like the Sri Rama Sene of the infamous pub incident, Abhinav Bharat and other organizations are part of RSS.
Fact 10: No. RSS clearly has defined who is a part of Sangh Parivar and who is not. You can’t club everyone who claims to be a Hindu organization, and malign RSS because of those organizations’ actions. In fact some of those ignorantly clubbed as “Sangh Parivar” with RSS, were trying to kill RSS leaders! Every attempt to malign RSS, like how Congress leaders did in case of Ajmer blast, has backfired.

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