ALI SUKHANVER

The Article 370 of the Indian constitution gives a special status to Jammu and Kashmir and this privileged status is not acceptable to the Hindu extremists in any case. According to the India Today RSS had set four Hindutva conditions for supporting Modi before his selection as the Prime Minister of India. ‘Modi has been made to pledge to building a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He has also been urged to enforce the contentious Uniform Civil Code across the country. He is asked to press for a repeal of Article 370. If done, it will take away the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir. He is asked to take steps for the protection of cows,’ says the paper. So the importance and value of this article 370 could easily be estimated by the demands set by the RSS. Mr. Modi has been very honest and sincere in fulfilling the conditions imposed by the RSS since after his appointment as the Prime Minister of India.

Mr. Modi is very much conservative and staunch in his religious concepts. He is very sincere and honest to the Hindutva philosophy and it is nothing unexpected if he co-operates with the RSS in its plans of crushing the minorities for making India a real Hindu state. On 14^th October 2015, the Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi in a statement alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was carrying forward the agenda of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is to divide the nation and to seek power. Talking to ANI Joshi said, ‘”It is the double speak of the party. Mr. Modi cannot wash his hands off. This is a Fascist ideology, supported by the BJP and Narendra Modi. He is carrying forward the agenda of RSS. The political agenda of the RSS is to divide the nation and to remain in power and to seek power and I think he is badly exposed.’

All words and actions of Mr. Modi are a proof that he is very much committed to the philosophy followed by the RSS. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, commonly known as the RSS is an organization which claims to struggle for giving India back its lost identity as a Hindu state. The RSS was founded in 1925 as an anti-colonial organization. It promotes a fundamentally different vision that draws on a mix of Hindu legends and ancient Indian history, when the subcontinent was home to some of the world’s most advanced civilizations.

The Reuters has recently published a report with the title, ‘Battling for India’s soul, state by state’. According to that report an ascendant Hindu nationalist group wants minority Muslims and Christians to accept that India is a nation of Hindus, and is pushing some of them to convert. An election in the volatile state of West Bengal has become a prime target in its game plan. The move against the Muslim and Christian minorities in India is being fully supported and supervised by the RSS. A few days back, RSS General Secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said talking to the media, Hindustan means land of Hindus; so anyone living here is automatically a Hindu first.” RSS Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told Reuters, We would want the BJP to win all the state elections because only then can significant social, political and cultural changes take place in this country.” In short the RSS is planning to start something like a civil war against the minority Muslims and Christians in India. How long this war continues and what would be the ultimate outcome of this war; no one knows but one thing is very much clear that RSS is dreaming of changing the secular society of India into a Hindu extremist society. Unfortunately the RSS is enjoying a very strong support of the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. Since after Mr. Modi taking charge has come into power, life for the Muslims and the Christians in India has become very difficult. The Foreign Policy says in its recent issue, ‘Subramanian Swamy, a senior BJP leader from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, declared in a speech this March that mosques, unlike temples, are not holy places and thus can be demolished. Two days later, the BJP chief minister of the northern state of Haryana announced that the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu holy text, would become mandatory throughout the state. A number of churches were vandalized. A 71-year-old nun in the eastern state of West Bengal was gang-raped. And the beef-ban movement was spreading to new states.’ The BJP, the RSS and Mr. Modi, all follow the same philosophy; crush the minorities. Last March The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh during its three-day Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha made it clear that no one from the RSS ‘parivar’ should work against the interests of the Narendra Modi government. And what are the interests of the Modi government, everyone knows well.