An Open Letter to the RSS Sarsanghchalak

Respected Mohan Bhagawat Ji,

Your scheduled online address regarding the current scenario and what everyone should do in this situation is neither surprising nor a matter of discomfort. Being the head of one of the most influential organisations in India, many would like to listen to your views on the pressing issues of our time, and many would like to follow your directives. You are known for openly speaking your mind, uncaring for the petty politicking that would follow it. Can we expect the same candidness when you speak on Sunday evening?

Since your organisation is very proud of the moral training that is being imparted to its members, you should let us all know how you view the politics of horse-trading, the capture of MLAs, and the toppling of elected governments through the prism of the moral compass of your organisation. Yes, once upon a time, the Congress also used to do it, but then you should agree with Mr Arun Shourie when he labelled today’s BJP as Congress+Cow. Do you?

Today, India is on the cusp of a great opportunity to knock China out of the top spot in the field of production of consumer goods… this is something you could include in your speech. But can we take hold of this opportunity when the government has messed up our economic growth through demonetization and installing mediocre people in leadership roles of financial institutions? How satisfied are you with the economic growth story of the Narendra Modi-led government? Long before the economy was halted in its tracks due to the lockdown, the growth story of India was derailed.

Last year, the Modi government escaped the people’s wrath, thanks to the Pulwama terror attack and the subsequent surgical strike. This year, the coronavirus has come to the aid of the Modi government to divert people’s attention away from its gross economic failures. But the political face-saving is not going to help the Indian economy emerge from its slumber; nor is it going to create employment opportunities for millions of youth. It is not out of curiosity but out of necessity that we need you to address the issue of the economic record sheet of the Modi government. Since yours and organisations affiliated to it have massively discredited otherwise acclaimed economists of our time, their speaking out to the government is not resulting in any positive policy change. However, if you tell the plain truth about our economy, it would either result in shaking up the government or shutting up its critics. You have an opportunity to tell the people in the government what they should and should not do to uplift our economy and ensure growth with jobs. Or do you think it is not your job to do so?

Your organisation has always wished to see India as one of the great powers of the world. A global crisis is also an opportunity for countries aspiring to this status. An apparent western backlash against China certainly opens up space for India. On the other hand, Indian space has already been constrained by China in our own neighbourhood. A constrained India in South Asia can never even be an Asiatic powerhouse, never mind the world. This loss of space in our neighbourhood has rapidly happened under the Modi dispensation wherein China was able to make deep inroads into Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. It even completed the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through Gilgit-Baltistan and parts of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, while we were boasting of surgical strikes. Post-1971, at no point of time, have India’s territorial claims and sovereignty been so severely compromised as due to the CPEC. Don’t you feel outraged that the Modi government didn’t even try to halt the construction of the CPEC?

The Modi government has also done nothing against the US-Taliban deal in Afghanistan, which is meant to prepare the ground for the Taliban’s entry into the Afghan government.  It doesn’t even have a roadmap to tackle CPEC or the Taliban in Kabul. The coronavirus is not going to end these problems for India. The problems for India have only grown in its own neighbourhood, which the media is unwilling to discuss. But what about your position as the head of the self-proclaimed nationalist organisation? Are you not concerned about these developments? Will you not express your concerns? You must be aware that a few Arab governments recently rounded up some of the non-resident Indians and warned all of the NRIs residing in those countries against spreading religious bigotry on social media. The Indian government also advised the NRIs in those countries to behave responsibly. Do you think those NRIs were behaving irresponsibly? Do you support the Arab governments initiating actions against those NRIs? If those NRIs were not acting irresponsibly, why did the Modi government not protest with the concerned Arab governments? On the other hand, if you support the Arab governments’ stand regarding those NRIs, what about some of the Indians behaving in exactly the same manner in India? Should not the Indian government act against all such people – irrespective of their religion and profession – who are continuously spreading communal venom through social media?

Respected Mohan Bhagwat Ji, would you like to say anything about all this? We are all eagerly waiting for your address. Jai Hind!