'Seculars' feeling hurt by RSS chief Bhagwat's petals
By Amba Charan
Vashishth
She must find fault with anything,
everything the husband does. And that is exactly what, like a nagging wife, the
opposition seems to be doing. The latest is the din raised by the opposition
over the public broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) relaying live the customary
Dussehra address by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghchalak Shri
Mohan Bhagwat.
The criticism could have been based,
primarily, on two grounds. First, Shri Bhagwat was an non-entity and by
relaying it DD provided him a platform he otherwise didn’t deserve. Secondly,
what he spoke on the occasion hurt the sentiments of the nation or an
individual, a group, a caste, creed, region or sex. But there is nothing of the
sort. His address was tinged with the spirit of swadeshi, nationalism and
nation’s pride. But what for is the opposition, like the ever-complaining wife,
if it doesn’t find fault with the government? Surprisingly – and comforting for
Shri Bhagwat – none of them has criticized him the contents of his Vijayadashmi
speech. Consequently, the comments of the critics prove turn wanton
without substance, opposition for opposition sake.
Their (il)logic
CPI-M leader Dipankar Bhattacharya puts the
strange logic. “Modi on AIR, thugs on streets, trolls on twitter”, he argues,
“let the mind still be free and without fear”. As if, in traditional communist
mindset, flow of different opinions from all shades and sides is a hurdle to
the mind being “free and without fear”.
To the erudite Congress spokesperson
Abhishek Singhvi’s mind it “reinforces the fear that the country is ruled for
and from Nagpur…..Misusing official broadcaster to mandatorily cover RSS head
with no official locus; a taste of times to come”. The Party had no objection
when the “official broadcaster” was used to give wide and live coverage to
Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi’s visits to their parliamentary constituencies out
and out a political campaign. Not to speak of non-Congress MPs, even other
Congress MPs were denied this very special “privilege” the mother-son due was
singled out for special treatment as if DD belonged not to the nation but the
two individuals of Congress alone. Further, the visits were of interest only to
a section of these two constituencies and the whole nation was fed with
unwanted reports of least interest to them.
History is an objective, fair and impartial
document. But our historian Ramchandra Guha could not hide where his sympathies
lay in his research when he commented: “This naked state majoritarianism must
be resisted”. The majoritarianism he despises he doesn’t elaborate. As a
historian of his clan he believes in being autocratically authoritarian to the
exclusion of majority of facts and opinion. Obviously, he wishes people to
believe, as he does, that democracy is not rule by majority but by
self-righteous opinion holders like him.
The RSS function was obviously an important
event which DD viewers had all through been denied by the Congress rulers all
these years. The other private channels availed themselves of this opportunity
and added to the viewership and the resultant ad revenue. It is here that the
DD was the loser on both counts. Diatribes of the critics are a clear
indication why DD remained a losing institution all these years.
Nobody can deny the fact that RSS is the
world’s largest voluntary organization which has done a Yoeman’s service
everywhere whenever the country was in distress – in recent J&K floods,
Kedarnath tragedy, tsunami catastrophie and what not. Why should DD shy away
from reporting their activities which are of interest to a vast majority of the
people? In a way, it has benefitted RSS criticis because it provided them
fodder for their criticism. They should welcome it. ***'
Published in the ORGANISER Weekly in its October 19, 2014 issue
Published in the ORGANISER Weekly in its October 19, 2014 issue
