Sir,
If the 92-year-old RSS is seeking an image makeover, it is a welcome sign. The wind of change is blowing all over the world, and it is time the RSS, should also bring about reforms and shed its image of an obscurantist organization. Those who have not reformed with times, like our Communist parties, particularly the Marxist, have withered with times. The first indication of “Glasnost” within the monolith organisation came from the RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat in a lecture series to invited audience in Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan.
In his lecture series, the Sar Sangh Sanchalak seems keen to steer the RSS towards a centrist political space and pitch it above divisive realm of power politics. Coming ahead of the general election, his elaboration, on the RSS vision of India hold new possibilities for rightwing politics, which in certain times has become strident in tone and polarization in action. While aggressive Hindu politics has been electorally rewarding, it forecloses the possibility of becoming an ideology acceptable to different sections of the society, a matter Bhagwat seems to be concerned about.
Bhagwat’s lecture series, where he readily repeated the Preamble of the Constitution including his commitment to secularism and socialism, is a significant shift from his immediate predecessor’s thinking. It is a welcome U-turn.
Harihar Swarup
on e-mail
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel