Advani's
Autobiography Is
RSS Version Of Events
By Ram Puniyani
16 April,
2008
Countercurrents.org
Many
a review has already come out of this book,
spanning the life of Lal Krishna Advani, known for
thrusting the RSS-BJP politics on the body politic of
democratic India. Starting from his role in initiating
campaign around Ram temple issue, rath yatra Babri
demolition, BJP's becoming a significant power in the
electoral arena, NDA rule and the Gujarat carnage, he
has played a major role in implementing the RSS agenda
of abolishing the democracy and gradually imposing
Hindu nation. That's why the comments of Mohan
Bhagawat, RSS General Secretary, at the time of
release of the book, that Advani has written the book
like a swaymsevak are most apt in describing the book
and in understanding the agenda of the man who has
been a major player in the policy rooms of RSS-BJP.
Undoubtedly
there are some serious mistakes like the
narration of the hanging of Bhagat Singh, but how can
one expect a Hindu nationalist to know the life events
of an atheist, communist, dead against the politics
promoted in the name of religion, which Advani
practices. Then there is a deliberate presentation
that he, despite being Home minister, was not the part
of decision making process of Jaswant Singh
accompanying the terrorists to Kandhar. This is a
deliberate lie, but with a purpose. The idea is to
present himself as someone who is 'hard' against
terrorism, and not responsible for the mistakes of NDA
regime. At the same time he takes the credit for the
all the supposedly good actions during NDA regime.
Than there is a deliberate silence at places, that of
details of death of his political mentor, Shyama
Prasead Mukerjee, or expulsion of hardliner Balraj
Madhok from President ship of Bhartiya Jan Sangh, the
previous avatar of BJP. All this should be expected as
being primarily a swayamsevak, who has taken oath to
work for the Hindu nation, meaning there by to usurp
the democracy, he will tell us what suits his
political goals and leave out the uncomfortable
incidents from his log book of history.
What comes
out from this massive volume is the mind
set, the politics which RSS has been pursuing and its
actualization in the political arena from the decade
of 1980s. What comes out is the very sophisticated
presentation of the ideology of RSS, its view of
history, nationalism, culture and politics and what
have you. Indoctrinated in the shakha baudhhiks (RSS
branch ideological sessions) and inspired by Mookerjee
and Deendayal Upadhyay, this swaymsevak does the best
advocacy of the 'divisive' ideology and its role in
pushing back the values of freedom movement.
One also
wonders about his very title, My country: My
Life. By My country, apparently he refers to India, as
it came to be after it attained independence. During
that time, the whole country, the Indian nation was
striving to fight against the British colonialists,
barring of course the Muslim League-RSS-Hindu
Mahsabha. How can the followers of RSS, or religious
nationalism of any variety for that matter, call this
democratic secular nation as their country as their
notion of nationalism is far removed from what most of
the people of this country accepted and there by
followed the path shown by Gandhi and the values
delineated by the likes of Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar.
While currently,
Advani ilk talks of nationalism in an
aggressive manner, as a matter of fact when this
Nation was coming into being, they were conspicuous by
their absence from the process of nation formation.
When as a young recruit of RSS he was digesting the
indoctrination of RSS ideology, the youth of his age
were breaking the British laws to ensure that our
motherland gets freedom. When he was imbibing the
'cultural nationalism' of RSS, Ambedkar was condemning
the Brahminic theology of Hinduism, the very base of
RSS cultural nationalism.
His crocodile
tears at the death of Gandhi are
displayed a wee bit shamelessly. While talking of
Gandhi murder as a sad event, the rath yatri forgets
to mention that the murder was done by none other that
his fellow swaymasevak, Nathuram Godse, who was also
holding concepts of nationalism about which the author
talks so gloriously all through in the book. His
fascination for Deendayal Upadhyay reveals the deeper
ideology of Hindu Rashtra. Upadhyay is credited with
the ideology of Ekatma Manvad, Integral humanism, the
indirect defense of the Varna system in current times.
The fortunes
of RSS changed for better with Jaya
Prakash Narayan letting RSS combine become part of the
movement led by him. Now it comes out that this
movement was to be the turning point in Indian
politics, by giving legitimacy to the murderers of the
father of the nation and by opening the way of Hindu
nationalism, which came to assert itself over a period
of time. While describing the break down of Janata
Party, he puts the blame on others, while the real
issue was that socialists like Fernandes and
Rajnarayan were very forthright in saying that Jana
Sangh faction should dissociate from RSS if it wants
to continue being part of janata party. The Janasangh
faction of Janata Party, (Vajpayee, Advani, Varma)
decided to break the Janata party rather than severe
the connection with RSS, and that's how the party
broke. Interestingly at that time and till quite late
George Fernandes was the most vocal critics of RSS-BJP
and its fascist ideology. In this book Fernandes finds
a very cozy mention, as the political opportunism of
Fernandes and political expediency of BJP brought them
together and is keeping them together as NDA, so much
for the 'honesty' of the narrative.
The shift
away from Gandhian Socialism, the ideology
of BJP as enunciated at the time of its formation
finds no ideological treatment in this tome. Why they
picked it up in the first place and what made them
abandon this ploy? One is raising these questions
knowing fully well that one does not expect RSS
volunteers to answer them, as the goals justify the
means for this brand of politics. The taking up of Ram
Temple issue is elaborated in great detail and with
this the communal historiography, Muslim kings
destroyed Hindu temples, and all other Shakha baudhik
outpouring, which is strengthening communal divide is
dished out by him in a very clever manner. What also
becomes apparent here is that Advani was never shaken
or disturbed by the real life deprivations of dalits,
poor or the workers. What comes clearly is that the
major problem for Advani has been the issues related
to identity, in contrast to issues of bread, butter,
shelter and rights. It is this identity polices which
made Advani what he is.
With Ram
Temple issue, the national identity is made
to veer around lord almighty. And while asserting
that, this Hindutva warrior does state that he does
not want a theological state, thank you sir! But what
else can he say. While the whole nation was talking of
India, multi religious, diverse and multicultural, RSS
was talking of a political system based on monolithic,
Brahimised Hinduism called Hindutva. So Advani's
effort to project Lord Ram as the symbol of Indian
nationalism is ludicrous but it did help his political
agenda to no end. It did lead to demolition of a
centuries old mosque and the carnage targeted against
minorities. Babri dispute is also presented through
the prism of Hindu fanatical ideology, never
questioning how British introduced the divisive
communal historiography through their gazettes and
through the history books. The sources he cites for
Ramjanm Bhumi temple being there, the courtier account
etc. should be laughing matter for serious historians.
But that's what suits his politics.
Life has
many contradictions and surprises. This man
wants to build a Ram temple at the site, where Babri
masjid stood. He says that the Kar Seva on 6th
December 1992 will be done with bricks and shovels.
His colleagues, the part of Ram Temple movement assert
that they will destroy the mosque and the debris will
be thrown in river Saryu. Then his followers do
precisely what is told to them and what is desired by
the Advani clan. If that is what they have been saying
then how come they should endeavor to stop them while
kar sevaks are demolishing the mosque, is beyond one's
comprehension. The claim that the RSS combine
leadership on the stage tried to stop the demolition,
is probably amongst the biggest and most convenient
political lies of the history of current times. His
colleagues are celebrating, hugging each other,
distributing sweets and this gentleman wants us to
believe that it was the dark day of his life! Probably
he is too shrewd and astute in his political
calculations for posterity.
As a build
up to the demolition he propagates that the
masjid is a sore on the eyes of nationalism. Probably
he knows indoctrinated history only as much as is
needed as an ideal RSS swaymsevak. Who will tell him
that the mosques and temples were destroyed and built
more as a political calculation by the kings rather
than for religious considerations alone. He will not
like to know that the biggest temple in Ayodhya,
Hanuman Garhi was built on the land donated by Nawab
of Awadh or that the same Aurangzeb who destroyed many
a temples also gave huge donations to many a Hindu
Temples.
The build
up to Babri demolition was preceded by
implementation of Mandal Commission, some thing which
his party could not handle. If they support it they
loose their core upper caste Hindu constituency, if
they oppose it they weaken themselves on electoral
wicket, so they seek the help of Lord Ram at this
juncture. His revered other leader, the one famous as
the Mask of RSS, Vajpayee, put it very aptly by saying
that they brought in Mandal so we had to resort to
Kamandal (Religiosity) in our politics. Post Bari
violence is totally bypassed, violence following the
Rath yatra is underplayed and attributed to everything
else except their real cause the Yatra. Yatra is all
milk and honey, pseudo secular trouble makers are
doing the violence and projecting is as Blood yatra,
how wrong of them, Mr. Ram Sevak!
The whole view of things is 'genuinely saffron', in
this account. If one wants to know the trajectory of
RSS combine on political chess board, here is the
book. The nuclear arms race triggered by the Pokhran
and then Advani's, threat to Pakistan, now we have a
bomb, dare you assert yourself. And then in reply to
India's five explosions Pakistan does six and silently
tells Advani yes we also have it and if we occupy
Kargil, what will you do baring requesting Uncle Sam
to make us withdraw? But all this is not the part of
Advani story, where the nuclear explosion is a
national honor and his colleagues celebrate it by
planning to spread the 'holy' Pokhran sand all over
the country so that their ideological cancer is
supplemented by physical cancer! Any way mercifully
the later was not done and nation needs to thank these
'nuclear nationalists' for their kindness in sparing
us the spread of radioactive nuclear material!
How to
defend a fellow swaymasevak who has presided
over a mass carnage can be nicely learnt from the
chapter on Gujarat. Advani bypasses all other versions
and reports to defend Modi's actions. If Godhra train
was burnt (implication, by Muslims) why you should at
all consider the Banerjee report whose opinion is
contrary to that of his fellow swaymasevak. If Gujarat
Forensic lab gives the report that fire could not have
been put from outside, how can we take that into
consideration. And see there were so many other acts
of violence, so why single out Modi for this one. The
reports by various human rights groups have no
meaning. All is well in Gujarat, the Supreme court is
transferring cases out of Gujarat as the possibility
of getting justice there does not exist, so what?
Gujarat is prospering and Modi as a true RSS worker is
ushering in Hindu Rashtra there, relegating minorities
to the second class citizen status, what can be a
bigger joy for this 'nationalism', as his nation is
coming to fruition by and by. He doggedly defends
Modi, and anoints this mass murderer of Gujarat as his
successor, what more can speak of his politics.
There is
enough material in the book to understand the
politics and planning of RSS. The trivial things
apart, Advani shows the glimpse of things planned by
RSS. Gujarat is the way and BJP will gradually bring
in such a state of affairs as outlined by their most
revered Guruji, Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, who
ordained that Minorities submit to the wish of
majority (RSS) else they will have to live as second
class citizens. And one does get this frightening
picture after going through this book.
It shows
the mechanism of RSS combine also. You need a
suave, soft spoken person at the top till you come to
full power. That's why Vajapyee had to be the Primer
minister despite the fact that it was Advani who led
the Babri demolition and Hindutva onslaught on Indian
democracy. With Vajpayee, retired, some one has to
take that place and Advani with his mannerism and
expressions which are soft, fits the bill till they
come to power and than of course it will be Modi's
day, Modi, with classic fascist persona (a la Ashish
Nandy), is already waiting in the wings to impose the
Hindu Rashtra. What is most frightening about the
book is that communal common sense manufactured by RSS
shakhas and propagated by various other means has been
presented as a sugar coated pill by this wily
swayamsevak turned politician in the service of Hindu
Rashtra.
