New Delhi: Khalistan activists and Islamists are colluding to create “a narrative of Hindu hatred” in Western democracies, claims an article published this week in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) English mouthpiece, Organiser.
The article, which comes in the wake of pro-Khalistan protests in cities such as London and New York, argues that “Khalistanis have become useful idiots” for Islamists waging an “anti-Hindu campaign”.
To bolster its contentions, the article cites various studies highlighting the purported rise in “Hinduphobia”, including one released last year by the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University, New Jersey.
“According to (the study), there has been a dramatic rise in hate speeches and hateful memes directed towards the Hindu community across social media platforms, often amplified by Islamists and Khalistani radical elements accusing Hindus of committing genocide of minorities in India,” the Organiser article says.
Notably, the Rutgers study in question does not mention Khalistan anywhere, although it does claim that “Islamist extremist and white supremacist communities regularly disseminate genocidal and violent propaganda and memes against Hindus”.
The Organiser article goes on to list various incidents that Khalistani separatists were allegedly responsible for.
“Whether it is the sacrilege at Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto, or defacement of another Hindu temple in New York or the recent violence at Leicester in the UK, the role of Khalistani separatists in fomenting anti-Hindu sentiment is increasingly being noticed,” it says.
The article adds: “Khalistani radicals often operate hand-in-glove with Islamists and have become a menace to the peaceful Hindu diaspora in the West. They routinely intimidate Hindus during Hindu festivals or on Independence Day or Republic Day functions.”
The piece concludes with a call to action to the Hindu diaspora to speak out against the “unholy alliance of Islamists-Khalistanis, and liberals”.
‘Hindi imposition is Congress-created controversy’
In an interview with Organiser, published online on 21 March, Karnataka higher education minister Ashwathnarayan C.N. attempted to clear the air about recurrent accusations against the BJP government of “imposing” Hindi and “saffronising education” in the state, which goes to polls on 10 May.
When asked about allegations of promoting a “Hindi agenda”, Ashwathnarayan said that the controversy has been “created by the Congress”.
“We have always believed in preserving and conserving indigenous culture and languages. So, we are giving a choice to the students to even answer (exams) in a language that they are comfortable in,” the minister said. “We are giving the choice to students to study what they want, in the language they want.”
The minister also spoke about Karnataka’s “great tradition of the Indian knowledge system” and about attempts to “digitalise all the knowledge available of past civilisations”.
Congress and ‘hecklers’ veto’
An editorial in the RSS’s Hindi mouthpiece, Panchjanya, this week weighed in on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a defamation case and on the opposition’s reaction to it.
The editorial argued that with their loud reactions, the Congress and other opposition parties seemed to be trying to enforce the “hecklers’ veto”, wherein a speaker can be effectively silenced by those who disagree their speech.
Panchjanya also said that some reactions reflected a lack of respect for the judicial process.
“The sister of the accused, Priyanka Vadra has written on Twitter, ‘the complete power machinery’. Is she trying to call the court also a machinery of power? Similarly, the chief minister of Delhi has called it a ‘conspiracy’ and the lawyer of the accused himself has blamed the judicial process,” the editorial said.
“In this country it has become necessary to separate the criminal coefficients of ‘defamation’ and ‘habitual defamation’. It is very unfortunate that some institutions and some individuals… regularly feel themselves to be beyond rules, laws, logic and decorum,” the editorial said.
It added that “we cannot accept a situation in which any person is allowed to say anything against the unity of the country”.
VHP on Palghar ‘lynching’ case
The Supreme Court is expected to hear a plea next month seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the 2020 murders of two sadhus and their driver in Palghar, Maharashtra. The decision came after the court was informed that the Eknath Shinde-led BJP-Shiv Sena government had given its consent for the agency to conduct the investigation.
Lauding this development in a social media post, Alok Kumar, international working president of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), criticised the probe under Maharashtra’s previous Uddhav-Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition, which had ruled out a communal angle.
Kumar claimed that Palghar is also home to Naxalites and Christian missionaries and thus, their alleged role in the killing of the Sadhus should also be examined.
Right vs Right?
Right-leaning author Shankar Sharan has argued in Hindi publication Naya India that the BJP is becoming increasingly like the Congress and seems to have deviated from its ideals.
“It is a strange sight… on the one hand the BJP talks about a ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’, but on the other hand the Congress itself appears to be the ideal that is perched on its head. As if the BJP has to copy the Congress in every situation, in everything. Not only in thoughts, actions, but in all things, expressions, symbols, excuses, etc,” Sharan wrote.
Giving the example of the political controversy over the Hindenburg report on the Adani Group, Sharan pointed that the first argument that was heard from the BJP’s side was “asking what is the Congress’s relation with Ambani?” When questions are raised about the policy towards China, “there is an uproar of ‘What did Nehru do’,” he added.
He said that “no party has deviated from its original slogans and objectives like the BJP and the RSS”.
“The Sangh Parivar ignored the thoughts and feelings of its founders, former sarsanghchalaks and presidents and declared Pranab Mukherjee their guide. Similarly, Mulayam Singh, cursing whom BJP collected votes for thirty years, is now being termed as the national ideal,” Sharan alleged.
Amidst the thousands of books in the BJP’s e-library, he alleged that there isn’t even one available from K.B. Hedgewar, M.S. Golwalkar, Nana Palkar, H.V. Sheshadri, Gurudatta, or Acharya Raghuveer.
“Now most of the books are disappearing and it seems clear that this is happening deliberately,” he alleged.
SJM and India’s entrepreneurial glory
RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagaran Manch’s monthly magazine Swadeshi Patrika featured the stories of more than 30 ‘Swadeshi’ entrepreneurs. The list comes at a time when US shortseller Hindenburg Research’s unflattering January allegations against industrialist Gautam Adani are still fuelling controversy.
In its editorial, Swadeshi Patrika wrote that when the West, in the “arrogance of its little knowledge”, is conspiring to whip the world and impose neo-colonialism on developing countries, India is standing against it with its “eternal values”.
“India has been recognised in the world as an industrial country since time immemorial. Our entrepreneurs kept pace with the times and promoted production according to the needs of the time and made the country prosperous by exporting more and more Indian goods,” the editorial said.
“In the last period, due to long slavery and wrong policies of the government after independence, our industry gradually lagged behind. Unemployment has become a problem in India, which has always been self-sufficient on the strength of its industrial production,” it added.
The editorial further claimed that after the NDA government came to power in 2014, India’s economy is back on track and is poised to make a spectacular impact on the world stage and become the “golden bird” once again.
Ram Madhav on new global order
In an article in The Indian Express last week, RSS ideologue Ram Madhav wrote that the world order, built by the Western powers in the aftermath of the Second World War, was facing its severest challenge from China today.
“The post-War world order was primarily about ‘sovereign inter-state relations and a relatively open global economy, characterised by practices of inclusive, rule-bound multilateralism’. That formed the core of multilateral institutions like the UN. As the decades progressed, the Western powers added concepts like democracy, liberalism, and human rights to this discourse,” he wrote.
China was one of the beneficiaries of this world order in the last three decades, he wrote, but under Xi, it consistently violated all the core principles of this order.
“India is committed to rejecting the authoritarian and coercive world order that China promotes. As the world’s largest democracy, its commitment to freedom, human rights and peace also is above board. It contributed significantly to upholding multilateralism through the UN and allied institutions”, Madhav wrote.
He further said that upholding India’s principle of strategic autonomy is important to ensure that the Global South has a significant role in shaping the 21st-century world order.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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