Statement issued at a Press Conference at Agartala, Tripura

by

Sri Ram Madhav, Member, Central Executive, RSS

27-08-11



FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION:

The country has witnessed an unprecedented upsurge of patriotic sentiments against the corrupt and arrogant political leadership of the country. Led by eminent non-political leaders like Sri Anna Hazare, Sri Ramdeo Baba and others this popular upsurge has demonstrated the unthinkable - that the power of the united society is paramount and the Government of the day must heed to the peaceful voices of millions of the countrymen - young and old, rich and poor, men and women.

The RSS has, through a resolution passed at Puttur, Karnataka in March this year, exhorted it's Swayamsevaks to fully support all the initiatives in the country against corruption in all forms. Following that resolution the RSS members have been actively supporting all these movements.

The RSS fully endorses the demand for a strong Lokpal that covers the office of the Prime Minister as well. The Government and some leaders of the ruling Party have demonstrated uncalled for arrogance in addressing the issues raised by Sri Anna Hazare. The RSS condemns this attitude and calls for sincere efforts by all parties to bring in effective Lokpal at the earliest.

While the Lokpal addresses one major dimension of the problem of corruption, there are several other dimensions to it like the black money. More importantly the fight against corruption will succeed only when it also includes fight against the corrupt. The RSS calls upon the countrymen to continue this campaign against corruption and extends full support from it's cadres to all the future initiatives in this direction.


COMMUNAL AND TARGETED VIOLENCE (PREVENTION) BILL:

Attempts by a section of the intelligentsia, under the garb of the National Advisory Council - NAC, to bring in a dangerous and draconian Bill with the above title are highly reprehensible. The NAC is just an NGO lacking any locus standi. It consists of a bunch of pseudo-intellectuals whose only credentials happen to be their anti-Hindu rhetoric and intimacy with Smt. Sonia Gandhi.

The Bill that they intend to force on the people of the country is dangerous for our already fragile social harmony situation. It is explicitly biased against the Majority community i.e. the Hindus. It projects them as solely responsible for the communal violence in the country.

Where a sincere effort to bring all the communities closer is urgently needed, there this Bill does just the opposite. It attempts to widen the gulf and acrimony between communities and thus is a fodder for anti-national and anti-Hindu forces.

The RSS warns that the country will not take this monstrous Bill lying down and resist it on all forums including political and popular ones.

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Government Should Accommodate Anna's Suggestions in the Lokpal Bill

Anna Hazare's decision to go on fast once again from 16 August is going to stir up nationwide reactions. It is clear from the response of the Government that there is enormous anxiety over how the proposed fast would turn out. Would it attract same attention nationally as it did before or it would fizzle out this time? Of course people in the Government would sincerely wish it fizzled out.

But the national mood doesn't seem to suggest that. Recent Times of India poll showed that about 80% urban youths strongly support Anna Hazare's campaign. That is bad news for the Government. It is the urban crowds - including film stars, young professionals, sportsters, university-going boys and girls - that attract maximum media attention. Our media's weakness for urbane things is too well-known. In fact Anna's fast on the previous occasion was a major success partly due to the attention it attracted from the media.

That is not to suggest that he doesn't command the support of rural populace. Corruption in our country has become so frustrating to every ordinary citizen - an urbanite and a rural man alike - that today anyone seen fighting against it will immediately receive the support of the whole country. No section in the country is spared of this national disgrace. Corruption has become so virulent that the fed up nation jumps at any bandwagon that is seen to be a bulwark against it. People don't even want rationale - whether a particular form of protest is justified or not etc. They just don't want to tolerate this utterly corrupt regime for a single day more.

In fact Anna's agitation is a product of this public frustration and anger, so were the other agitations like that of Baba Ramdeo etc. The support they enjoy had been spontaneous and across the board. Some in the Government and the political establishment tried to give knee jerk reactions but ended up befooling themselves. They resorted to silly and superfluous campaigns like linking the popular anger against the corrupt that has manifested in Anna's and Ramdeo's movements to the RSS. They claimed, quoting intelligence sources, that the RSS was behind the movements and the leaders were only their 'mukhota' - frontmen. They even tried to justify their Fascist and unconstitutional midnight crack down on Ramdeo's supporters with the fictitious claim that they had intelligence inputs about massive mobilization by the RSS to further Baba's campaign.

As Pratap Bhanu Mehta stated in one of his articles, they were only enhancing the prestige of the RSS by making such allegations. The RSS has historically been playing an important role in all such public agitations. In seventies when Loknayak Jaya Prakash Narayan launched his historic campaign against the corrupt in the political establishment the RSS cadres too joined his campaign. The ABVP played a very important role in Loknayak's campaign. Later when Indira Gandhi imposed draconian Emergency and curbed all the fundamental rights of the citizens of the country the RSS cadres actively opposed her undemocratic rule and again joined the Lok Sangharsh Samiti campaign in big numbers. Even the BBC acknowledged the crucial role played by the RSS during those trying times to save our democracy describing it as "the only non-Leftist force".

But it must be noted that those movements were supported by many other sections of the society too, like the Socialists, the Gandhians etc. Even a section of the then Congress Party also finally joined Loknayak's movement.

This time too the RSS cadre have been playing a similar role only. They are not 'behind' anybody nor is anybody their 'mukhota'. They are WITH every movement that reflected and manifested the determination of the patriotic people to throw out this corrupt political establishment. They will continue to do so. Even in the forthcoming renewed agitation of Anna the RSS cadres, along with millions of other countrymen, would do thier utmost to make it a success.

Though there is a Government sponsored Lokpal Bill before the Parliament the agitators led by Anna say that it is just a hogwash. Government's steadfast opposition to including the Prime Minister, who is the first among the equals in the Cabinet, in the ambit of the Bill raises suspicions in the minds of the people about the intentions of the Government. Simply put, biggest strength of Anna and others is the utter lack of credibilty of this Government on the question of combating corruption. People believe Anna more than they believe even the Prime Minister whose facade of personal honesty stood thoroughly exposed today.

Anna's movement starting from Aug 16 is bound to attract huge support from the people. Government seems hell bent on crushing it. Any such misadventure will certainly recoil on the Government severely. Memories of the brutal crackdown on Ramdeo's supporters are still very fresh in the minds of the people. Reaction to it's highhandedness would be very serious this time. In stead the Government should try to accommodate the suggestions of Anna and others in it's draft Bill and then refer it to the Parliament. Even Anna agrees that the Parliament is the supreme authority in passing or not passing the Bill. In either case the Members will be answerable to the voters in their respective areas. That is the only option left for the Government now.

Liberal Fascists

This is an old technique of our pseudo-intellectuals. Attack and abuse.. but never engage in a debate or discussion over the issues raised or the arguments made.

Sesham Kopena Poorayet…. goes an old adage. What remains when you run out of arguments is anger and abuse.

What Dr. Subramanian Swamy had written in an article titled “How to wipe out Islamic terror in India” are his views. One may or may not agree with his views. The article was found fit for publication by the editor of a prestigious Mumbai-based English daily.

Ideally our intellectuals should have responded by countering Dr. Swamy’s arguments and opinions. Instead what we hear are endless invectives. I am not giving any opinion on the content of the article here. But how can I or anybody else deny Dr. Swamy his right to articulate his views?

In fact the political mission of many Islamists is under scrutiny all over the world. Tons of literature can be found in US and Europe over political Islam. In the most liberal parts of the world issues relating to Islam and its political ambitions are debated freely and opinions freely expressed. But in our country it is a complete taboo.

I am not surprised about the reactions from politicians like Digvijay Singh. In fact we can ignore them. For, they are just merchants of votes, rather unscrupulous. They don’t read books that they go to release. We don’t need to imagine that they had read Dr. Swamy’s piece before condemning him. They are knowledge-proof and information-proof. All that they know is to cynically exploit every opportunity for their narrow vote-bank politics. In fact they must be cribbing and wallowing that ‘Osamaji’ had not telephoned to them before getting killed so that they could have declared a grand nexus between the CIA and the RSS in eliminating ‘Osamaji’ – ‘part of a global anti-Muslim conspiracy’. Ignore them.

But what about our intellectual brigade that lungs out choicest sobriquets at Dr. Swamy for daring to write that article? What about our Minority Commission which is ‘seriously considering’ taking legal action against him?

Don’t forget these were the very same people who vigorously defended using their full vocal might M.F. Hussain when he painted Durga Mata, Sita Mata and Bharat Mata in the nude and obscene. That was described as ‘artistic freedom’. And these were the ones who were defending seditious bellows of Arundhati Roy and Jeelani etc. That was freedom of expression. Why then can Dr. Swamy not enjoy that freedom?

But that is how our pseudo intellectuals operate. They did it before too, several times, with several others. When Syed Shahabuddin was attacking Js. Krishna Aiyer on Shahbano judgment or when he was haranguing against Salman Rushdie – remember, without even reading the book Satanic Verses - these intellectuals were not seen anywhere to stop him. They were mute spectators to the fundamentalist Muslims’ targeting of Taslima Nasreen and their hurling of choicest invectives at her. Even to this day she runs from pillar to post every six months to ensure that the Indian Government doesn’t throw her out under the pressure of the fundamentalist groups.

In all these cases the refrain of these pseudo intellectuals is that the sentiments and sensitivities of the Muslims must be kept in mind. Let me recall that when Ayatollah Khomeini declared fatwa of death against Rushdie the great American Democrat and former President Jimmy Carter didn’t ask for the Ayatollah or the Muslims to show greater sensitivity to the right to freedom of expression of other people. Instead he only called for greater Western sensitivity to Muslim feelings. So did Margaret Thatcher of the UK.

Our pseudo intellectuals don’t bother when a Derek van Gogh is murdered or a Geert Wilders is made to make umpteen number of rounds of the courts or a Scandinavian magazine office becomes a target of repeated attacks for an ordinary cartoon depicting the Prophet or an Ayan Hirsi Ali is hounded out of Netherlands. Their freedom of expression doesn’t count. They pounce on Dr. Swamy in the similar manner for using a platform to express his views. He must be thrown out of Harvard; he must be prosecuted.

Now are they not the real Fascists – the Liberal Fascists?