RSS chief’s comments deserve condemnation

It is India’s misfortune that it has spawned the likes of Mohan Bhagwat, the rabble-rousing ideologue of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an organisation that nurtures itself on a daily dose of communal hatred. After having been on the margins for decades, tenaciously hanging on to its outmoded concepts of nationalism and chafing at the bit for reclaiming its place on the political centre stage, the dawn of the Narendra Modi era — which the RSS partly helped usher in — has allowed the organisation to bounce back.

It’s now decked up in all its ill-earned epaulets. But this Machiavellian pact is proving to be a strain on the Indian consciousness. Bhagwat, with his irresponsible and reprehensible views on the “Hindu-ness” of all Indians is not only postulating a ludicrous theory — which goes against the grain of India’s Constitution — but he is also proving that the RSS has no compunctions in steering the public discourse in India into disruptive realms. If the BJP has to win the trust of the minorities, a task it has been too lazy so far to undertake, it needs to put the Bhagwats of India in their place.