Bharat’s image, power, fame and position on the world stage is constantly improving, claimed the sarsanghachalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), Mohan Bhagwat, in his annual Vijayadashami address to the faithful last week. “But as if to test our resolve, some sinister conspiracies have appeared before us which need to be understood properly… Attempts to disturb and destabilise the country seem to be gaining momentum from all directions.” These are dire warnings coming from a responsible political personality.
Bhagwat began his address with a reassuring assertion that, “Everyone feels that Bharat as a nation has become stronger and more respected in the world with an enhanced credibility in the past few years.” However, he quickly went on to list a range of internal and external challenges that not only threaten India’s rise but also its unity and national security. “There is a sudden increase in the incidents in the country that incite fanaticism without any reason. There may be dissatisfaction in the mind about the situation or policies, but there are democratic ways to express it and oppose them.”
The speech is wide-ranging, covering such topics as family values, women’s empowerment and climate change. “With the help of science and technology, we have made life extremely comfortable,” observed Bhagwat, adding, “On the other hand, the conflicts of our selfish interests are pushing us towards destruction.” What stands out in this year’s address is the long list of concerns about the state of the nation and the many challenges it is facing — communalism, fanaticism, casteism, regionalism, separatism, instability in border areas, ill-treatment and violence against women, and so on. In short, Bhagwat portrays a Bharat besieged.
India has been dealing with most of these challenges since the republic’s inception. There was even a time in the mid-1960s when western scholars wondered whether India would get balkanised. Even as recently as the 1990s, when Yugoslavia broke up, questions were raised about a similar threat to India’s unity. So what is now “pushing us towards destruction”, as Bhagwat claims?
For close to half a century, the RSS blamed a succession of governments for not handling these challenges properly and making a mess of governing India. Bhagwat is particularly concerned about unrest in “border areas”. What exactly has happened in the past year for the RSS chief to now issue such a dire warning to a government of their own? For over a decade now, the governments in New Delhi and in many states and UTs, including in border regions, have been run by politicians who earned their spurs in the RSS and BJP.
The picture of disarray and poor governance across the country that Bhagwat paints is worrying and reminds one of the days when the RSS charged governments in Delhi of being weak and pusillanimous in dealing with threats to the country. Surely, the Modi government must own up to its share of responsibility in not being able to manage these domestic political and security challenges, especially in border areas. Does the writ of the Delhi Darbar no longer run that far?
On the external front, Bhagwat seems perturbed about the impact of some recent developments including the conflicts in West Asia, the uprising in Bangladesh and the targeting of India by “liberal, democratic” countries. Linking the situation in Bangladesh to the aborted “Arab Spring”, Bhagwat worries whether external powers would target India too. The commitment to democratic values of countries “that claim to be liberal, democratic and committed to world peace vanishes as soon as the question of their security and self-interest arises.”
Not a new complaint. Communists the world over have said so for decades. So why does Bhagwat echo those fears now?
Reading those lines I was reminded of a recurrent theme in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s many speeches, when he would assert, “the world wants India to do well, our challenges are at home.” That formulation was based on the assessment that barring China and Pakistan most countries in the world wished India well. Till not so long ago, it was felt that the world as a whole, and most certainly the liberal democracies of the West and East, had come to view India’s rise as a global public good. When China’s rise sent the West into a funk, even the US came around to viewing the rise of a “liberal, democratic, multicultural and plural India” favourably. Many in the Global South of decolonised developing economies have wished India well. But now we add a country like Canada to the list of hostile nations.
What, then, has happened in the recent past for Bhagwat to view the external environment as more of a challenge than an opportunity? Why, now, this sense of siege? Has India risen so fast to become so powerful that it threatens major powers? Is Bhagwat right to suggest that western “liberal democracies” are out to destabilise India and that there is a “deliberate attempt to tarnish Bharat’s image based on lies or half-truths?” If so, what has Bharat with its per capita GDP of under $3000 done to incur the wrath of countries with five and ten times that level of income?
Perhaps Bhagwat is conveying his disapproval of PM Modi and his team’s more recent record of political, administrative and policy leadership, or lack of it. Bhagwat’s grim outlook does not sit well with the narrative of an India rising as a consequence of the policies of the current dispensation, of Viksit Bharat’s Amrit Kaal. Of India becoming the world’s third largest economy. A leader of the Global South and a “global and strategic partner” of more than one major power.
Bhagwat clarifies that his “description of the situation is not meant to scare… intimidate or incite fighting. We all are experiencing the existence of such a situation. It is everyone’s wish and duty to make this country united, happy, peaceful, prosperous and strong. The Hindu society has a greater responsibility in this…” Fair enough. So is the Modi government being seen to be missing in action?
The writer was Member, National Security Advisory Board of India, 1999-2001 and media advisor to Prime Minister of India, 2004-08
