Is RSS’ Coffer Of Ideology Empty?

The helplessness of the Modi regime is showing that Hindutva cannot counter any serious challenge thrown to the nation. It could be seen also in its failure to deal with domestic problems. Manipur is the latest example

If anything is constant in Modi’s India, it is the pursuit of divisive politics. Every country is seized with the issue of resisting the challenges US President Donald Trump has thrown to the world order. No country is silent, nor passively waiting the storm to die.

Until a few days ago, countries like Canada and the United Kingdom were counted as the USA's strongest allies. Now, both are ready for a showdown with the latter. Even if the current storm stops, things will not be the same again soon. Loopholes in the current international arrangement are so starkly naked that no cover could hide it.

A completely new world is before us that is confrontationist and violent. Also, on the economic front, it is harmful and hostile to us. Ours looking the other way and trying to distract ourselves from the reality will not work. If Trump has announced the end of existing world order, he has also announced the withdrawal of the USA’s patronising role. The USA under Trump is not talking about protecting democracy and fighting terrorism.

The Trump’s slogan of Make America Great Again (MAGA) is nothing but the declaration of the withdrawal. The USA had practiced America First policy during the intervening period of two World Wars. At the beginning of World War II many Americans pleaded to adopt the same policy, however, the threat of authoritarian Axis Powers (Germany, Japan, and Italy) drew the USA into the war.

The intervention of the USA into the war changed the outcome of World War II. The USA also helped shape the post-war world. The post-World War II America had conflicting trends in it. On the one hand, it stood for democracy to isolate the Soviet Union and its allies for their supposed authoritarianism.

On the other hand, it supported fundamentalist and authoritarian regimes to suppress people’s risings. The entire period of the Cold War is filled with stories of the USA’s duplicity. However, like any other country, the USA should not be seen as a monolithic one. The voice of democracy and human rights has never been less dominant. People’s opposition to the Vietnam War, and the support to the rights of Palestinian people are the best examples.

The USA politics has been able to accommodate the dissent. Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine demonstrators at Columbia University indicates an end to it. Mahmoud Khalil, a student of Palestinian descent, has been arrested and is facing actions under Immigration despite his being a green card holder. He is also married to a US citizen.

All these indicate a total reversal of the status quo that America has achieved during the post-World War II phase. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, another pole of power, the USA, was accepted as the only pole of power.

Now when it is relinquishing the role, it is certain that the world will become multipolar. The world is watching our response to the situation, and the Modi government is hardly ready to confront the situation.

If we take a look at the helplessness or inertia of Prime Minister Modi to stand against the highhandedness of the President Trump, it is bound to upset us. We have seen how illegal immigrants from India were dealt with cruelly, and that too during the US visit of the Prime Minister. Modi’s reception at the White House was also far from being warm. But Modi took the apathy shown by President Trump very timidly. Why did he look too weak before the US?

The weakness of the Modi government is ideological. A subservient media and a meek intelligentsia is not ready to acknowledge it. The crisis India has landed into is due to the ideological orientation of the ruling regime.

The helplessness of the Modi regime is showing that Hindutva cannot counter any serious challenge thrown to the nation. It could be seen also in its failure to deal with domestic problems. Manipur is the latest example. By its years-long activities in the Imphal Valley, the RSS has turned ethnic conflicts in the state to a religious conflict, and now there is no reconciliation between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities.

The destruction of churches and campaigns on religious lines has left no space for any reconciliation. The state has been sent into a civil war. The BJP leadership failed to find an alternative to N Biren Singh. The President Rule has also brought no peace to the land.

Uttar Pradesh is said to be the second laboratory of Hindutva. The chief minister of the state has changed the image of a sanyasi.

In Hinduism, sanyasi is supposed to have no lust, no emotion. He does not discriminate among the beings on the planet. However, Yogi Adityanath is always in anger. His speeches against Muslims are filled with hatred. A question comes into mind, why Mahakumbh, a dip into the holy Ganges, failed to bestow peace on him. He is bent upon isolating Muslims from the mainstream of the society.

The failure at the domestic front and timidity in diplomatic affairs are interlinked, and are different symptoms of the same malady. The malady has its roots in the ideology of Hindutva. Hindutva has the same solution for all problems- revival of Hindu (Sanatan) spirit. Like all other religions, Hinduism also boasts of a single solution to all the problems in the universe. Recently, I encountered an article claiming AI in ancient India. We have grown hearing Pushpak Viman (Airplane), and Agniwan(Missiles)! Is there any scope of any argument?

The timidity towards the challenge thrown by Trump has emanated from the ideological construct the RSS has built. We can see how Modi takes a dip into the Ganges when Delhi goes to polls, and visits Vantara soon after he concludes his US visit. Does it not show how we are trying to find a primeval solution to a modern challenge? When the world discusses tariff war, we discuss Aurangzeb, and Holi versus Ramzan. The RSS has shown its empty coffer.

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)