New Delhi: The book launch of Who is Raising Your Children? answered the question many times over. It’s the great conspiracy—wokeism, the United Nations, Planned Parenthood, the American education system, and its ubiquitous tentacles. All have collectivised to wage war on the psyche of Indian children.
Written by Rajiv Malhotra, whose website calls him a Hindutva ideologue, and former engineer Vijaya Viswanathan, the book was launched by RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale at the Vivekananda International Foundation. The following discussion generated ample panic, reminding the audience of the supposed global forces designed to annihilate a fixed image of Indian identity. According to the authors, the only solution now is to return to a single source. The Vedas.
“These are the organisations that are breaking India. Development is a fantastic word, and poor countries need development,” said Malhotra. “But whose agenda and whose pedagogy will be used? Those who are anti–Indian culture.”
For the most part, Malhotra was referring to ‘social, emotional learning’, listed as a UN Sustainable Development Goal—under the banner of which falls sex education. Teaching children about sex, be it as children or as teenagers, according to him, is an epidemic that must be stopped.
“Where have these curriculums come from? They aren’t unique to India,” he said. “It’s not like we’ve taken Vedic ideas of sexuality. These have come from a different civilisational matrix and have been brought into India in a very forceful way.”
Malhotra and Viswanathan referred to belief systems and conspiracy theories which are now packaged as sacrosanct; as unshakeable truths. Apparently, there is a ‘global citizenship’ agenda, poised to place the burden of social justice on children—thereby making them angry. Greta Thunberg was named as an example. Sexuality laws are being amended in order to pave the way for global acceptance of paedophilia and pornography.
“Peer groups are being weaponised. Children who are ultra-progressive and liberal are being recruited,” Malhotra said.
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Trump will save the kids
A silver line for Malhotra and his ilk has come in the form of Donald Trump. The US president, with his dismantling of the USAID (United States Agency For International Development) and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), is ensuring that some of these wrongs are being undone. Malhotra referred to USAID as a front for the CIA.
While Malhotra resides in the US and looks at Hindutva from a macro, global lens, Hosabale brought it back to India.
“It is time for us to wake up and stop it. Our cultural uniqueness will be destroyed. We will have to say goodbye to our national identity,” Hosabale declared, adding that the New Education Policy could be of help in reversing the damage that has supposedly already been inflicted.
According to Hosabale, it remains to be seen whether or not India is going to take a leaf out of Donald Trump’s book. He narrated an incident: He met a set of parents from Bengaluru, who had shifted back from Dubai—leaving behind a lucrative job. Their child was depressed and confused because his teacher was apparently insisting that he should start using the girls’ toilet, and “to think like a girl”.
His traumatised parents moved him back immediately.
“If this is happening, are you going to have a healthy family, a healthy nation, a healthy society?” asked the RSS General Secretary fervently.
There were plenty of teenagers in the audience, imbibing the message that Malhotra has spent decades developing.
One audience member remarked that changing the education system would barely be scratching the surface, telling the panellists they should look at the kind of media being consumed by children. He was referring in particular to Mismatched, an Indian coming-of-age Netflix romance.
The panel concurred. The kids are not alright.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
Why don’t these people leave their American citizenship and come back to India with their families ?