New Delhi: Parmeshwar Dubey’s ‘Good Morning’ WhatsApp message on Thursday wasn’t the usual flower or quote of the day. At 6:30 am, the RSS member’s phone pinged with a call for unity and a show of strength after the Pahalgam terror attack.
“As you all are aware, 27 innocent tourists were brutally killed in Pahalgam, Kashmir, after being asked their religion. To pay tribute and register our protest, a candle march is scheduled for tonight at 9 pm,” the message on the resident WhatsApp group read.
A day before, at an RSS camp inside the Eco Village 2 condominium in Greater Noida, Dubey and a group of swayamsevaks, who are also residents, decided that silence was no longer an option. That’s when they drafted a message to send to resident WhatsApp groups, urging people to come together and protest.
“The idea was that the residents should wake up to such a message and that might stir their conscience,” said Dubey. With incomplete projects, nascent or non-existent societies, and absent Residents’ Welfare Associations, the RSS has stepped in to fill a gap. It has become the new RWA of condominiums across Noida, Greater Noida, and Ghaziabad. And members like Dubey have taken it upon themselves to instill nationalism and patriotism among residents.
The networks have been abuzz since the Pahalgam terror attack. The morning WhatsApp clarion call ended with a request: “Gather with your families at 8:45 pm. Bring a candle. Show the nation that we stand—together.”
The same message has been doing the rounds on the resident WhatsApp groups of NCR’s societies exhorting residents to gather and protest. RSS members describe it as a call for the “kayar” (coward) and “soye hue” (sleeping) Hindus to wake up and unite.
Another message doing rounds on WhatsApp is asking people to boycott tourism in Kashmir.
“We want to give a message to the world that we will not tolerate this any further. Please light two large candles on 27th April (Sunday) in the open fronts of your houses. Make this a nationwide movement. Jai Shree Ram. Jai Bharat,” read yet another message.
The movement picked up pace when a few condominiums organised their own march after the Pahalgam attack. However, the turnout was low.
That’s when RSS members in these condominiums decided to launch an organised campaign. The aim is to unite residents for a mega march that they say will pressure the government into action.
They want the government to give a “karara jawab” (strong response) to Pakistan. At the same time, Dubey said they’re trying to ensure that residents don’t feel abandoned by the state — stepping in to fill that emotional and political vacuum within these gated communities.
Dubey (40) has spent the last 24 hours exhorting naysayers and critics who are questioning the point of a solidarity march.
“These are cowardly Hindus. I am telling them that PM Modi and Yogi ji are powerful. They don’t understand that it’s important for the government to know we want them to kill and avenge Pakistanis. I will also be putting the videos of these marches in the RSS groups so that it reaches Modi ji,” said Dubey.
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Calls for a surgical strike
Dubey can’t get over the photo of a woman clinging to her dead husband in Pahalgam. “They had just got married. It was horrific,” Dubey said. The photo—of Himanshi with her husband, Lt. Gen. Vinay Narwal—has become a symbol of the terror attack on social media.
Dubey has been bombarding his society groups with videos of the victims of PM Modi’s tweets and speeches. And he wants India to launch a surgical strike. “And this time, the surgical strike should ensure that Pakistanis can’t dare to do this again,” he said.
Not satisfied with simply sending forwards he’s taken to calling residents up to talk to them about the planned march—all this between his morning RSS camp and gym.
And to the people who think a candle march will not change anything, Dubey is going an extra mile—inviting those people to his house or going to their houses.
When a neighbour questioned the need for a candlelight march, Dubey said “the sindoor of Hindu women was washed off in Pahalgam”.
He has elicited promises from 3,000 people to join the march.
“There used to be terror attacks earlier. But for the first time, such targeting has taken place. Hindus were asked to recite kalmas,” he said. And he has only one question to ask: How can you keep calm?
But his heartache, aggressive words and campaign is not only to register protest but also to reinforce people’s faith in BJP. “The residents need to know that the government is capable and will take action against Pakistan,” said Dubey.
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A ‘guiding’ hand
Satyawali, a resident of Amrapali Zodiac in Noida Sector 120 and a member of the RSS, has also organised protests in his condominium. Like many other new townships, his society does not have a formal RWA — only a loosely formed WhatsApp ‘committee’ where residents raise queries and share issues.
He has prepared a placard with ‘Pakistan Murdabad’ emblazoned on it for the march. He has put three reminders in the WhatsApp group asking people to join the protest. At Amrapali Golf Homes, another resident Lakshmi Kant is spreading the word. Affiliated with the RSS, he had organised a candlelight protest in his society on Wednesday night.
However, Satyawali is in conflict with other RSS members who are sending ‘Boycott Kashmir tourism’ messages.
“Why should we boycott tourism in our own state when we say Kashmir is a part of India. We need to attack Pakistanis because they have done it.”
Not everyone agrees with these calls for protest and war, but families are choosing to keep quiet. Several residents are wary of the political undertones to the calls for a candle march.
“These RSS members are trying to make us feel closer to the government — as if the government is with us, doing something. It feels like they are trying to fill the vacuum left by the incident with a certain narrative,” the resident said.
Dubey and his fellow swayamsevaks don’t see it that way.
“Sometimes, people don’t understand how to react or what to do when such a horrific situation erupts. That’s when swayamsevaks take matters in their hands and guide them. It was like that during the Kargil war. And now, during the Pahalgam attack,” said Dubey.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Why don’t these guys go to the borders and start protecting them in display of their patriotism
What exactly is Ms. Sagarika Kissu’s issue here?
She has always been virulently anti-Hindu. Her articles on Hindus and Hinduism reek of hatred and scorn for the religion and it’s followers.
Even in this tragedy she is trying to pin the blame on us Hindus and portray Muslims as innocent and naive.
This is “un-hyphenated journalism” at it’s best.