Just when some relief was felt at the retreat into the background of Yogi Adityanath, the patron of ghar wapsi campaigns, Sakshi Maharaj (“madrasas breed terrorists”) and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti of the “Ramzada-haramzada” fame, the previously unknown Mahesh Sharma has emerged from the woodworks to liven up the political scene.

It is nothing out of the ordinary for a saffron apparatchik to call for making Hindi compulsory in schools and including the Ramayan and Mahabharata in the syllabus. But, in the process of articulating these views, the Union culture minister has also shown how far to the Right he can tilt by ruling out the inclusion of the Bible and the Quran in the curriculum because they do not reflect India’s “soul” although he is willing to allow parts of these books to be taught in schools.

It is clear from these observations that the ideals of the two saffron gurus, Savarkar and Golwalkar, continue to dominate the BJP. Savarkar, of course, specified who can be a Hindu by laying down that only those who regard India both as their pitribhu or fatherland and punyabhu or holy land are the true citizens of the country.

This ruled out Muslims and Christians who may have been born in India but whose punyabhu are in Mecca and Rome. To put the matter in a clearer perspective, Golwalkar went a step further to designate Muslims and Christians as Internal Enemies Nos. 1 and 2.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the culture minister thinks that the holy books of the “internal enemies” have nothing to do with India’s soul. However, for all the veneration which Savarkar and Golwalkar evoke in the Hindutva camp, the minister has shown considerable enterprise by fine-tuning the identity of at least a section of Muslims.

His contribution to the saffron philosophy on minorities is that a few like A.P.J. Abdul Kalam can be regarded as nationalists “despite” being Muslims. Evidently, the former president – and also probably the Muslim members of the BJP – are no longer “enemies” although their punyabhu are outside the country.

There are other evidences of fine-tuning as well. The RSS supremo, Mohan Bhagwat, wants the Hindus to give up those elements of the faith which are unscientific. The advice is startling because science hasn’t generally been the main inspiration for those who once said that Lord
Ganesh was drinking milk. There are also those in the Hindutva lobby who believe in the therapeutic value of cow dung and cow urine.

Probably inspired by Bhagwat’s counsel, a saffron outfit, the Akhil Bharatiya Itihaas Sankalan Yojana, has called upon women to lead the kind of liberated life which they did in Vedic times. For once, the praise of the past can have a positive impact unlike the propagation of the belief that pushpak vimans were no different from the aeroplanes of today.

The call for women to live on their own terms will dishearten those like Sakshi Maharaj who want women to ignore the family planning norms and produce more children to ensure that the Hindus remain a majority in the only country of their own – now that Nepal does not want to be Hindu rashtra – so that the Muslims do not overtake them in the population stakes. The case for independent women also runs counter to the culture minister’s fatwa against the “night out” concept for the fairer sex.

What these discourses suggest is that some kind of a churning is going on in the Hindutva camp. Few will deny that there has been a major transformation since the 1990s when the BJP moved from the margins of politics to centre-stage as there are no more calls for demolishing the Mathura and Varanasi mosques and Muslims are no longer described as Babur ki aulad.

Evidently, the years in power at the centre and in some of the states have bolstered what can be called the Vajpayee temperament of moderation in the BJP and even partially in the RSS though not yet in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the Bajrang Dal.

In the months immediately after Narendra Modi’s assumption of power, there was a spurt in the activities of the Hindu Right as the attacks on churches and the ghar wapsi and love jehad campaigns of the more militant elements in the saffron brigade showed.

But, it is possible that, first, they have been dissuaded by the government in view of the adverse international reactions, as could be seen from President Barack Obama’s emphasis on interfaith harmony in his last speech in India, and the observation of the New York Times on Modi’s “dangerous silence” on communal violence.

And, secondly, the militants themselves may have realized that they will be shooting themselves in the foot by queering the pitch for Modi.

However, even if the targeting of mosques and churches has tapered off for the time being, the saffron fundamentalists are keeping themselves busy pushing their agendas in favour of Hindi and vegetarianism. (IPA Service)