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The report is an unfortunate step back from the promise of a new outreach that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat himself held out not so long ago. The 2022 annual report of the RSS, released on Saturday, claims that religious fanaticism is growing in the guise of “Constitution and religious freedom” and that “elaborate plans” have been made by “a particular community to enter the government machinery”. It is obvious that the report is talking about India’s largest minority, Muslims. The report is an unfortunate step back from the promise of a new outreach that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat himself held out not so long ago. It comes at a time when the BJP’s electoral successes in the latest round of assembly elections should have paved the way for building on that outreach, not retreating from it.
At the “Bhavishya ka Bharat: An RSS perspective” conclave in Delhi, 2018, Bhagwat had said: “Hum log toh sarvlok-yukt Bharat waale log hain, mukt waale nahin hain (we believe in an inclusive India, not one that excludes)”. The Sangh, he said, believed that “the Indian Constitution is the consensus of the country” and argued that the “Hindu Rashtra” does not deny space to Muslims: “The day it is said that Muslims are unwanted here, the concept of Hindutva will cease to exist”. In July last year, Bhagwat said: “Cow is a holy animal but the people who are lynching others are going against Hindutva”. In February this year, he spoke against the hate speeches at the Dharma Sansad in December: “The statements which came out of the Dharma Sansad are not Hindu words, work or heart. If I sometimes say something in anger, then it is not Hindutva. The RSS or those following Hindutva do not believe in this.”
It is possible that efforts are being made to increase the presence of the minority community in government services, where it has been historically under-represented. The Sachar Committee, appointed by the UPA government, had documented in its 2006 report that the share of Muslims in employment is abysmally low at all levels and that “in no state does the representation of Muslims in the government departments match their population share”. For instance, the panel found that Muslims have a representation of only 4.5 per cent in Indian Railways — Muslims are about 14.23 per cent of India’s population as per Census 2011. In this context, any effort to increase the share of Muslims in government jobs must be welcomed as a step towards greater integration of the community in the national mainstream. It would help in blunting the perceptions of marginalisation of the community in times when a majoritarian nationalism is increasingly loud and plays the dominant role in defining the political common sense. The RSS would do well to reflect on its sarsanghchalak’s recent public pronouncements, and widen the opening, not seek to constrict or close it.
This editorial first appeared in the print edition on March 15, 2022 under the title ‘Going backwards’.
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