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RSS pulls out poor cow to encash
Hindu symbolism
WSN Network
 NEW
DELHI/NAGPUR: India's junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor called
the economy class as cattle class, and the remark led to much mirth,
comments and politicking in India, at one stage even threatening to
push Tharoor out of the ministry. Now, the real cattle wallahs have
crawled out of the woodwork.
The Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the umbrella organisation of the Hindus
that espouses a militant agenda and hate philosophy, has decided to
build on an another Hindu symbolic power notion of Gau Mata. It will
launch a Gau Grama Yatra (procession in the rural areas to protect
the cow), covering 22,000 km and three lakh villages in 108 days.
The campaign
will start from Kurukshetra in Haryana on September 30 and will
culminate into a grand rally in Nagpur on January 17.
While the
distance to be crossed is six times the length of the country from
north to south, the number of villages to be covered is half the
country's total number of villages.
At least 500
small yatras are to be organised every day and signatures in favour
of protecting the cow will be collected from the people to be sent
later to President Pratibha Patil. RSS publicity chief Manmohan
Vaidya said, "This is our largest movement ever involving the cow
and larger than any other movement after the Ramjanmabhumi
movement."
Clearly, the
campaign shows the adeptness of the RSS in encashing symbols and
stoking communal agendas through innocously sounding initiatives.
Reports say the RSS is also planning to lend some credence to its
Gau Mata campaign by connecting cow dung to farm manure and arguing
against chemical fertilisers and almost projecting that worship of
the cow will bring back organic self-sustainable agriculture and
will thus stop farmers' suicide.
The campaign
that began in 1984 gave the Bharatiya Janata Party, the RSS'
political organ, a national status.
This time,
supporting the RSS will be three Shankaracharyas -- leaders of the
orthodox stream of Hinduism -- actor Vivek Oberoi, former director
of the Central Bureau of Investigation Joginder Singh and many
others from various fields. The RSS also asserts some Muslim leaders
have also come out in support of the campaign.
30
September 2009
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