New Delhi: The “mediaeval mindset” of “resorting to violence” and invoking the Islamic Ummah (community) as a counter to the questioning of any Islamic tenet or historical facts needs to be exposed and countered to ensure peace and harmony, RSS affiliate journal Organiser wrote about the protests against ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, who was suspended for her controversial remarks against the Prophet Muhammad.
The editorial, which appeared in the latest edition of the weekly magazine Monday, asked whether something would happen to those voices that “did not spare a single chance to mock the Shivling-like structure found at the Gyanvapi complex”.
“The Muslim Ummah systematically used the timing of the Vice President’s visit to Qatar to vitiate the atmosphere further,” it alleged, referring to the government of Qatar lodging a protest against the comments on the Prophet while Vice President Venkaiah Naidu was visiting the country last week.
The editorial further wrote that reconnecting to the common roots of ancestry and culture, as suggested by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat, is the only option to get rid of “separatism” and the tendency to use the ‘veto of violence’. “While calling Hindus not to look for a Shivling in each mosque, he (Bhagwat) advised Muslims to understand the sensitivities of the Hindu society about particular places, which are symbols of aggression,” it said.
In its cover story titled ‘Rising Tide of Kafirophobia’, Organiser wrote that while people are expressing concerns over Islamophobia, nobody is concerned about ‘Kafirophobia’ — a term coined to express Muslim ‘intolerance’ against those who do not follow Islam and are called ‘Kafir’.
Regarding the row over Sharma and her colleague Naveen Jindal, two-time former Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Punj said this was the ‘temporary win’ of a ‘false narrative’. “The Jihadi, Leftist, anti-Modi camp in our country — along with Islamic countries like Pakistan, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, have brought international shame to India,” Punj wrote in Hindi for Punjab Kesari.
The question is whether what Sharma and Jindal said was really “hate speech”, he said. Both of them, he argued, said what Islamic scholars repeatedly assert in their arguments and are also a part of Islamic rhetoric. Punj asked if this was really an issue of Islamophobia, then why were Islamic nations quiet on atrocities committed against Muslims in China.
Also Read: How Hindu Right press defended Nupur Sharma’s controversial Prophet remarks
Sangh praises BJP’s handling of Nupur Sharma row
Analysing the BJP’s reaction to the growing outrage from Arab nations and the suspension of the two BJP spokespersons, the RSS’s Hindi mouthpiece Panchjanya said in its editorial that the BJP handled the episode with calmness and speed.
“Was the BJP under pressure? It can be said in many ways, but it is not the case. There is anger among the people but this party (BJP) has always progressed by understanding the public’s anger and nurturing their wishes. When the BJP formed an alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir, similar anger was faced by the party from its supporters, but it drank that bitterness, learned a lesson and fulfilled the decades-old expectations of the people by removing Article 370,” it said.
In another article, Panchjanya targeted Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi over their alleged involvement in a money laundering case related to the newspaper National Herald, which has seen Rahul repeatedly questioned by the Enforcement Directorate this week.
“The mother-son duo has been out on bail for seven years in the National Herald scam. This time also, the Congress has started to play the victim card. It is a tradition of the Congress that whenever there was any trouble with the Gandhi-Nehru family, it tried to create a controversy — be it the Allahabad High Court judgment against Indira Gandhi, or her arrest in the Jeep scam,” it said, referring to the former prime minister’s arrest in a corruption case in 1977.
“The royal family and its courtiers believed they would remain in power forever. Congress is calling the rioters ‘innocent children’, giving clean chit to Pakistan for killing Hindus in Kashmir, Rahul Gandhi is going abroad and declaring that diplomats have become arrogant. National Herald is just one link in the chain of scams,” the article claimed.
In its magazine Vishwakarma Sanket, the Sangh’s labour wing Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) announced that it would hold national conventions against privatisation and corporatisation.
“This is a part of the mass awakening programme on disinvestment and privatisation in the public sector and corporatisation of central government establishments. Employees of all public sector undertakings like power, telecoms, engineering, banking, insurance, etc. and central government employees belonging to defence, railways and postal sectors will be participating in these conventions in large numbers,” it said.
Ashwani Mahajan, co-convenor of the RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, wrote about attempts by developed countries at a ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to dilute a proposed text on waiving intellectual property (IP) rights for vaccines and other products in response to the Covid-19 pandemic .
“It is unfortunate that the developed countries like EU, UK, US and Switzerland and the WTO secretariat worked together to make the waiver proposal limited to vaccines and that too limited to export of vaccine only and that too, unworkable, being loaded with so many conditions. This proposed decision text is not offering any benefit to India or Indian companies producing the vaccine,” Mahajan wrote.
He urged that India should “call a spade and reject the adoption of the decision text”. “Adoption of this text undermines the need of the hour and conveys a message that legitimate needs of developing countries can be ignored for the profit of the transnational corporations.”
“It is astonishing that the WTO is not able to make IP-related exceptions even for the worst public health emergency in the century, which will remain a permanent blot on the WTO,” said another joint statement by Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Bharatiya Kisan Union and other RSS-backed organisations.
‘Conspiracy of vidharmis’
In its two-day convention at Haridwar on 11 and 12 June, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) called for the strengthening of family institutions, a central law against conversions, and the “liberation” of temples from the government, among other things.
Targeting religious conversions, Shankaracharya Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati — the former head of the Jyotir Mutt in Uttarakhand — was quoted as saying by Vishwa Samvad Kendra Bharat that this was a “well-planned conspiracy of the vidharmis (desert religionists), against which the central government should make an effective law”.
He added that Punjab is on the the verge of repeating the period of terrorism of 1984 and that there is a need to follow the teachings of the Sikh gurus.
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‘Golden era in the making’
RSS Delhi unit functionary Rajiv Tuli wrote an article in India Today about PM Narendra Modi’s tenure of eight years and said “we are witnessing a ‘golden era in the making”.
“India is seeing the revival of a culture where the civilisational values of Indian culture are being used as ‘soft-power’ in international diplomacy. Wherever the PM goes, he ensures that he elicits emotional and cultural ties of that nation with Indian civilisation while addressing the local populace,” Tuli wrote.
“He gifts Bhagavad Gita to visiting counterparts, he ensures to bring back the symbols of Indian civilisations like artefacts, he starts with Vasudev Kutumbakam (universal brotherhood) (sic), he invites people to visit India, he showcases Indian culture to visiting dignitaries — like Ganga Aarti, Sabarmati Ashram, temples of south etc. He is reviving Indian culture through temple resurrection, be it Ram Temple reconstruction, Kashi Vishwanath Corridor or revival of other temples.”
In an article in Naya India titled ‘India has changed’, Right-leaning author Hari Shankar Vyas argued that people’s mindsets have changed during the tenure of the Modi government.
“The people of India are in a new state of mind. Religion has brainwashed everything else in the mind. This state of brainwashing is equally profound in both Hindus and Muslims. Religion is life, religion is society, religion is economy, religion is politics and religion is pride. That’s why every city, every town, and every village of India is living with the daily routine of noticing what the WhatsApp discussions are on religion and karma today,” Vyas wrote in the article, originally published in Hindi.
“In the eight years, the demand in the metropolis, cities, villages and towns for priests has increased and the temples have expanded the most. Seeing the BJP MPs, MLAs and leaders, now there is a competition from leaders of other parties that they, too, should be seen ahead in the activities of religion,” he added.
Also Read: Will dig up past until ‘Islamists identify with invaders’ — in the Hindu Right press this week
‘Himanta could be a national face’
Reviewing political analyst Ajit Datta’s book Himanta Biswa Sarma — from Boy Wonder to CM, Sangh member Ratan Sharda was all praise for the Assam chief minister.
“Biographer Ajit Datta has gone deep into the persona of one of the brightest leaders on the horizon of Indian politics who could be a national face among the galaxy of young go-getter leaders of BJP very soon,” Sharda wrote in a review published in Organiser.
“For a young college student to calmly tell his would-be wife that he wanted to be a CM is as courageous as another leader in a similar mould, Nitin Gadkari, telling his would-be father-in-law that he won’t take up a job, but he would be a job provider.”
“From a young agitator to a dark future as an accused under TADA to an AGP leader transitioning into a Congress leader till he realises that a Pidi is more important than a future bright leader of Congress to taking to BJP like a fish to water is not an easy task. Many leaders who have tried it, have found themselves to be on the wrong side of Lady Luck,” Sharda wrote, referring to Rahul Gandhi’s pet dog Pidi, who, Sarma claimed, was given more importance than Congress leaders.
Also Read: ‘WHO has lost credibility’ due to India deaths estimate — what Hindu Right press wrote this week