Honourable Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
You are occupying one of the four highest positions in the country! (1 President 2 Vice President 3 Prime Minister and 4 Lok Sabha Speaker) While serving as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Shri. Ramjilal Suman had raised questions about the appointment of the Chairman of the NTA and his association with the RSS! And on this, you, sitting on the Chairman’s chair, said that “We will not let this comment come on record! And we will not allow anyone to take the name of RSS, RSS serves the country! People associated with it work selflessly!” After this, you went further and said that “The reputation of the Sangh is impeccable! And criticizing it is against the Constitution! And if someone is doing this, then it is like trampling the Constitution!”
Chairman Sir, I do not know how close the relationship between you and RSS has been, but I am trying to write this post to make you familiar with my assessment of Sangh based on my own life experiences. While studying in high school, in the eighth grade (1965-66), I used to go to Sangh’s branch every evening. And in that branch, from games to intellectual and storytelling, the volunteers were repeatedly told “Hindustan of Hindus!” (Isn’t this a violation of our Constitution?) All the volunteers were made to sit in a big circle on the ground. And each volunteer had to walk around that circle, saying in one breath – Hindustan of Hindus! Whoever made the mistake of taking a breath in between, he was out and was made to sit separately. And then making that circle even bigger, the remaining volunteer had to walk around it, saying Hindustan of Hindus in one breath. And whoever could not hold his breath in between was declared out! In this way, whoever would survive saying Hindustan of Hindus in one breath was declared the winner! Similarly, the atrocities committed against Hindus at the time of partition were narrated with a lot of spice! I myself used to get so infuriated on hearing the details of atrocities committed mainly against women, that despite the road being deliberately crooked while returning home from the branch, I used to come back home through the Muslim colony, talking a lot of nonsense! And the poor people living in that locality, those who drove horse carriages or made quilts and mattresses, those who played bands or drums and cymbals, and one or two houses who were butchers who slaughtered goats and sold their meat, would sit on the platforms of their houses and just keep staring at me with fixed eyes! But no one ever interrupted me! Nor did they raise any objection! But at that time I felt that no Muslim person was stopping me from doing anything out of fear of a brave and courageous Hindu volunteer like me! The actual situation was that I was a boy born in a Maratha landlord family! There were many of these people who came to work in their fields, and the butchers who used to deliver fresh meat to our house after slaughtering the goat, and the pinjaris who used to make and deliver quilts and mattresses for our house, or the band players on weddings and other occasions! We had a joint and quite large family! Due to this, almost all the people living in this colony had a connection with our house for many kinds of needs! Due to this, it was natural for me to ignore the abuses hurled at me while returning from the branch! But at that time (I must have been 12-13 years old!), I felt that all of them were scared of me!
Vice President, you tell me that a 12-13 year old boy used to get so agitated by hearing whatever was said right or wrong against Muslims in the RSS branch, that immediately after inciting them in the RSS branch, he used to deliberately enter that locality and vent his anger, despite the twisted route of his return home from the branch! This ongoing venom spewing by the RSS against minority communities will complete 100 years on Dussehra next year! And you are giving certificates sitting on the chair of the Chairman of the Upper House that “the reputation of the RSS is impeccable! And criticizing it is against the Constitution! And if someone is doing this, then it is like trampling the Constitution! And he will not allow anyone to take the name of the RSS in the Rajya Sabha!” Does the act of inciting 12-13 year old children like me against any community in this manner come under our Constitution? Or is it a criminal offence to violate it?
Justice Madan Saheb, who investigated the riots of Jalgaon and Bhiwandi in Maharashtra during 1970-72, has written in his investigation report that “Who was directly involved in these riots? That is a different matter. But since the inception of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Sangh has been filling the hatred in the minds of the volunteers against the minority communities in its branches, from the games of the branch to songs and stories or even in the intellectuals! This turns into riots!”
Mr. Chairman, this is visible in the riots in Gujarat, Bhagalpur, Meerut-Muzaffarnagar and in other parts of the country. And you are giving this certificate while sitting on the chair of the Chairman of the highest house of the country. This is against the constitution of our country. Because the RSS has had to ban the organisation after various communal violence incidents since the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi till now. Why? Has the RSS ever got a clean chit from any court regarding the ban imposed on it? To whom you are yourself giving a clean chit certificate?
I myself have investigated the bomb blast that took place in a house named ‘Nrusinh Niwas’ in Patbandhare Nagar, Nanded, Maharashtra on 6 April 2006. This house belongs to Raj Rajkondawar’s family. Which is completely a Sangh family. And the Sangh’s branch used to run every day in front of their house. And while making bombs in this ‘Nrusinh Niwas’, a terrible explosion took place after midnight, in which Raj Kondawar’s young son Naresh Rajkondawar and two volunteers named Himanshu Panse were blown to pieces and killed. And a volunteer named Rahul Deshpande was badly injured. I have seen all this with the help of my two cooperative friends, after going from Nagpur to Nanded and investigating. And information has also been received about plans to throw these bombs in mosques of cities like Aurangabad (now renamed Sambhajinagar) and Parbhani on the occasion of Eid in future! Within two months after this incident, after seeing the news in the newspapers on June 2 about four fidayeen who had come from Pakistan being killed in a police encounter for trying to blow up the RSS headquarters (old palace building!) in Nagpur at 3 am on June 1, 2006, I wondered which terrorist organization is this? They were killed in a police encounter a few meters away from the building to blow up the headquarters of India’s largest Hindu organization! When more than two thousand people, mostly from the Muslim community, were killed in Gujarat after 59 people were burnt to death in a coach of the Sabarmati Express! And the daughters-in-law and daughters of their families were raped! This incident happened four years ago (2002) in Gujarat state. And four fidayeens, that too from Pakistan, attacked the RSS headquarters in Nagpur situated in the middle of India. All four of them were killed in an encounter. And their bodies were buried in the darkness of midnight. Seeing this, I have conducted an investigation under my coordination and under the chairmanship of Justice Kolse Patil. I am attaching the link of the report in the form of a clip at the end of this article.
I clearly believe that the so-called suicide attack on the Nagpur RSS headquarters was a well-planned fake encounter, just to divert attention from the bomb-making activities of the Sangh Parivar in Nanded. Why did the RSS have to do all this? And you are the one who is giving certificates of this organisation serving the country and working selflessly? And you will not let anyone take the name of this organisation in the House? Why will you not let it be? To absolve the RSS of so many incidents of terrorism in the past?
Similarly, there are photos and reports on the front page of major newspapers of Bhopal about Pragya Singh Thakur, the prime accused in the Malegaon bomb blast (September 2006), attending meetings of various RSS officials in Indore, Bhopal, Ujjain, Pachmarhi! And most importantly, in this case, the record presented in the court by Maharashtra ATS has presented the transcript of the audio-video of the history of these meetings in the court! And you, the Chairman of the highest house of India, do the service of the Sangh to the country from your chair! And the people associated with it are giving certificates of working selflessly? How much information do you have about this organization? I do not know! I am writing this to you from the very beginning! Therefore, I have written all this based on my own experiences! And if my words seem to be false, then I humbly request you to form a high-level committee to investigate the hundred years of work of this organization, under the chairmanship of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of our country Dhananjay Chandrachud. Then all the doubts about the Sangh and the allegations of its involvement in various terrorist incidents from the assassination of Gandhiji till now, will be revealed at once. And for the centenary celebrations of the Sangh next year, all the controversies that are spread regarding the patriotism of the Sangh and the loyalty of the Sangh towards the Constitution will be cleared.
Dr Suresh Khairnar is former president of Rashtra Sewa Dal (RSD)
