India: Facade of Unity – RSS Abducts Sardar Patel

The Nation is going to celebrate the Birth Anniversary of Sardar Patel on October 31st. The man who belonged to the whole country has now been abducted by Narendra Modi, a pracharak of RSS, the communal organization who the Sardar fought against throughout his life. Sardar was of firm opinion that RSS was the greatest divisive force in the country.

The only purpose of the construction of the Sardar Patel statue which was declared by Narendra Modi after he was anointed as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial Candidate is to collect votes for the 2014 elections in the name of this leader of India’s freedom struggle. It is therefore a downright irony that the RSS pracharak is trying to build the facade of unity by erecting the statue of one of the staunchest opponents of RSS.

Leaders who United the Nation vs People who are dividing the Nation

Sardar Patel, who has a new found admirer for himself in Mr Narendra Modi – the RSS Pracharak, was in fact the man who had banned RSS after Gandhiji’s murder.

In a September 11, 1948 letter to Guru Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, the then RSS sarsangh-chalak, Sardar Patel was forthright in his denunciation of RSS leaders:

“All their speeches were full of communal poison. It was not necessary to spread poison in order to enthuse the Hindus and organise for their protection. As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhijiâ€

Significantly, Sardar Patel was never in doubt about the role of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha in the murder of the Mahatma. In a letter dated February 27, 1948, to Pandit Nehru, he states this clearly

“It was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that hatched the conspiracy and saw it through… Of course, his assassination was welcomed by those of the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha who were strongly opposed to his way of thinking and to his policyâ€

Sardar Patel reiterated this position in another letter (July 18, 1948) to Shyama Prasad Mookherjee:

“As regards the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha… Our reports do confirm that, as a result of these two bodies, particularly the former, an atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly tragedy became possibleâ€

RSS to Abandon Politics – Hindu Dated July 24, 1949

The ban on RSS was lifted by the Government of India by putting a specific condition that RSS shall not participate in any political activities in the country and stick to its social agenda. In flagrant violation of the condition, RSS is now in forefront of the campaign to make BJP the ruling party with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister. Now that the RSS has violated the ban order, isn’t it desirable that the order lifting the ban should be revoked by the Government of India?