New Delhi: “The Government of Bharat has taken a clear stand in favour of Israel and against the terrorism of Hamas,” read an editorial in Sangh mouthpiece Organiser. While elaborating on the ‘root cause’ of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the piece by editor Prafulla Ketkar went on to quote Vivekananda to say that “Jews and Christians are at worst men of little faith ‘for the Islamists’, but the Hindu is idolatrous, the hateful Kaffir.”
Presenting the entire conflict merely as one involving a territorial claim, he wrote, is a “grave blunder the ‘secular’ academicians and intellectuals are perpetuating”. He added that the history of Jewish persecution throughout Europe is well-documented, with India being an “honourable exception”.
“The monotheistic religions that originated from the Abrahamic tribe, following Jacob, Jesus and then Mohammed, cannot coexist because the supremacist and exclusivist theological interpretation is the root cause of the problem,” read the editorial dated 16 October.
Ketkar wrote that “Islamists cannot accept the original territorial claim of Jews, hence the hatred”. He then referred to the normalisation of Israel’s ties with the UAE and to some extent, Saudi Arabia, to say that this “reformist path” is “unacceptable to the Islamists” of which “worldwide protest in the name of Islamic Brotherhood is a reflection”.
The editorial also said India’s stand “in favour of Israel” upset some elements within the country and that this must serve as caution as a “group of Islamists, supported by terror-apologist politicians and communist intellectuals, would vitiate the atmosphere in Bharat”.
In addition to quoting Vivekananda, Ketkar cited Ambedkar’s “book on Pakistan” to write that, for Islamists, “a country ruled by Kaffir is Dar-ul-Harb (house of war)”.
The editorial concluded by saying that the Israel-Hamas war is an “opportunity to go beyond territorial claims and understand and address the theological roots of terrorism”.
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‘Muslims’ silence aiding extremism’
In an opinion piece carried by Organiser on 17 October, columnist Pankaj Jagannath Jayswal wrote that “pseudo-secularism aids terrorists”.
“Muslims in Bharat and around the world should realise that their silence is actually aiding extreme organisations that are anti-humanity, and the victims are ordinary Muslims, whether in Gaza or elsewhere in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan,” he wrote.
Jayswal also compared the attack by Hamas to other attacks carried out against India and other countries in the past.
“The attack on the Israelis is not the first attack on humanity; Bharat has experienced multiple such attacks in the past, including the Kashmiri Pandit genocide in 1990, the Moplah massacre in 1921, and many more atrocities. The recent inhuman measures in Afghanistan are obvious indicators to people who have questioned such inhuman actions in the past when digital and social media were not active,” he added.
According to him, such “horrible crimes are still carried out by religious extremists, communist pseudo-secularist (sic) gangs, enemies of humanity who pose as guardians of humanity”.
“Communism and urban naxalism are attempting to destabilise the country and undermine its strong cultural base. However, if we go back in history, we can see that all of these selfish techniques have resulted in disaster and the annihilation of humanity,” Jayswal wrote.
Rizwan & his ‘message’
The Israel-Hamas conflict was also the subject of an editorial in Panchjanya, the Sangh’s Hindi mouthpiece. In the piece, editor Hitesh Shankar compared the Hamas attack to atrocities committed in Kashmir — an apparent reference to the Kashmiri Pandit exodus.
“It must be said that the gruesomeness and brutality that was shown to the women and children of Israel was nothing that India had not faced time and again, and most recently in Kashmir. But perhaps an even bigger tragedy was that the way India gradually returned to its normal rhythm after all the storms, was considered as India’s natural weakness. The sad thing is that little to no effort was made to understand this pain of India. Far from apologising for its heinousness and brutality, a class has been seen which boasts of the same till today,” read the editorial dated 15 October.
Shankar went on to write that many around the world have expressed their support for Hamas, citing the example of Pakistani cricketer Muhammad Rizwan who in a post on X dedicated his team’s victory over Sri Lanka in the ongoing World Cup to people in Gaza.
He wrote: “…Despite being a guest, he (Rizwan) tried to send a message by praying at the ground in Hyderabad. What was the message? And who was it for?”
India’s rank in Global Hunger Index
Writing about India’s ranking in the Global Hunger Index, Ashwani Mahajan — national co-convenor of RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch — questioned the methodology employed by German private aid agency Welthungerhilfe, which compiles the annual index along with international NGO Concern Worldwide. This time around, India was ranked 111th out of 125 countries in the index — as against its 107th rank the previous year.
“While the figures published by the Government of India were showing the infant mortality rate as 28 per thousand in the year 2020, international agencies are putting it at 29.84 based on their old estimates. It is noteworthy that no foreign or Indian agency is allowed to use any data other than the data published by the government,” wrote Mahajan.
He added that this hunger index report, however, “openly says” that it does not necessarily rely only on data provided by various government agencies. “The rapidly improving conditions in India may not be pleasing the organisations working with nefarious agendas.”
Mahajan added that if the “correct data” were taken into consideration, India would be ranked ‘48th and not 111th’.
‘Maoists are demons in disguise’
Terming the “complete eradication of Maoist thought” as necessary, an editorial in Hindu Vishwa, fortnightly magazine of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), criticised journalists protesting the Delhi Police and ED’s action against NewsClick and its employees.
“As the Indian government is tightening its grip on China-inspired terrorist Naxalites, anti-India journalists are making shameful statements calling this action anti-journalist. This is not the first time that urban Maoists have been arrested. Even before this, more than 20 high level urban Maoists had been arrested,” read the editorial.
It went on to say that “Maoists are no less than demons working in disguise”.
“Sometimes they start taking the guise of Bhagat Singh, and sometimes they start running organisations like Kabir Kala Manch under the guise of Kabir. Maoists captured the political party Forward Bloc formed by Subhas Chandra Bose, then captured the PUCLDR (People’s Union for Civil Liberties) formed against corruption by Jayaprakash Narayan and registered it in the name of PUCL (People’s Union for Civil Liberties). These days, they are seen advocating for terrorists under the guise of human rights organisations,” it added.
‘Shadow war on Indian soil’
Opposition to Hamas and support for Israel should not be seen as interference in the Israel-Palestine conflict but as a “measure to protect humanity against terrorism,” read an editorial published in Rashtriya Chhatra Shakti, the monthly magazine of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), student wing of the RSS.
“Even after two World Wars, the West’s thirst for war has not been quenched and once again the battlefield is visible. India has never tried to destroy any civilisation and will never do so as long as India lives with its values. It is beyond reason that this is not India’s struggle, yet this struggle continues on Indian soil in the form of a shadow war,” it added.
Terming Western countries’ support for Israel as “natural”, the author wrote that the “brutality with which Hamas attacked and brutally killed innocent civilians, even the elderly, women and children, will be condemned by every sane person”.
The attack, it said, falls in the category of the “most heinous form of global terrorism, which needs not only to be condemned but also to be swiftly countered”.
The editorial then adds that it is a “matter of concern that the political opposition in India is hesitant in coming out openly in favour of the national policy even on this sensitive issue”.
“Being the flag bearers of the heritage of noble thought like Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, it is the responsibility of every Indian, especially its leadership, to stand against every attack on humanity.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)