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Editorial
Outsourcing Political Honesty: A
Solution Most Pernicious
 In a most
fantastic solution proposed to bring about honesty and integrity in
public life at least among those who are in Indian politics on the
Right of the Center domain, journalist-turned-politician Arun
Shourie has recommended that the job be entrusted to the Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). Indeed, such a philosophy about politics
being some kind of a harlot and puritan souls entering politics
falling in love with the harlot and in need of being saved is the
core of RSS from which intellectuals like Shourie derive not only
their intellectual stance but also life philosophy.
It is good that
the suggestion has come from Mr Shourie, otherwise known for his
personal integrity and wide reading, besides, of course, competence.
From anyone else, the words would have been taken little note of
since there was no way to find out if they actually mean these but
in this case, we take it for granted.
But why are
souls like Shourie's or many others itching to allow the RSS to baby
feed all politics and philosophy to the BJP? Because the agenda
comes from some kind of a pernicious thought process that
Nagpur
and Jhandewalan are the repositiries of unfathomable goodness and
only by embracing their ideas on country, politics and power can the
BJP save itself. Also, it is being projected as if the Sangh is way
above the distractions, has existed for centuries, or at least is
based on ideas that have existed for that long, and longer, and
cannot be impacted by minor historical and political processes like
the industrial revolution, the formation of nation states, the
technological changes in the world, the leap to a post-colonial
existence, the new processes and thoughts in politics etc.
For the Sangh,
as Prof Jyotirmaya Sharma, who has studied the functioning of the
RSS closely than many others, holds, any idea of change is merely
cosmic play, leela, or is part of the illusory nature of the
phenomenal world and has little to do with reality. Reality is what
the Sangh feels, thinks, knows and decrees. The illusion of
permanence and hubris of certainty is protected because not only the
BJP but also the Congress and many other players in the Indian
politics are so deeply brahamanical and tilted towards the rich and
the established that any notion of change pressed for by minorities,
tribals, dalits, poor is dismissed as the word of heretics.
The RSS' idea of
politics is strange and outdated. It holds that politics is based on
selfishness and the greater selfishness increases, the greater the
need for politics, power and governance. The only way to avoid the
path to politics is to have social unity, cultivate the inner
excellence of individuals within that society and celebrate culture
as the true representation of genuine power. It even rejects
democracy and thinks that it encourages individualism and
selfishness. The only ‘ism’ that the RSS finds tenable is Hinduism.
No wonder, with
such ideas, the RSS thinks of itself as the paragon of purity and
perfection, as the sole guardian, protector and defender of what
they called Hindu culture, Hindu nationalism and Hindu
consolidation, the like of which is sometimes imposed by demolishing
mosques, whipping up a hysteria over Amarnath Yatra, pulling out
girls from pubs in Bangalore, smashing shop front windows on
Valentine Day or, if you have any free time left, cutting Muslims to
small pieces in Gujarat in order to attain the status of Hindu
Hridiya Samrat.
All of it is not
only condoned by the RSS, but is part of the larger vision of the
society that is visible from Nagpur. No wonder, for men like
Shourie, who now wants the "bombard the headquarters" approach, the
politicians in BJP fall short when compared to sages in the RSS.
That Shourie sees himself as a sage goes without saying. The RSS
holds that it indeed had sent some sages from its ranks to the
politics to improve it. These sages, over the years, instead of
reforming that harlot, namely, politics, instead fell in love with
her. They began to love all that she had to offer, be it power,
wealth, position or glory. So now, handover the task of cleansing
the impurities to the RSS.
It is this
pernicious way of looking at society, politics and nation building
that we need to stay aware of. The BJP can untie its knots. The
damage that the RSS will inflict will be worse.
2
September 2009
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