Ironically, Modi credits British filmmaker Attenborough for ‘discovering’ Gandhi, given that the entire RSS top rank has a history of pledging loyalty to the British colonial masters. The people of the country are yet to forget that RSS leaders had supported British in curbing the independence movement and torturing freedom fighters.

Nevertheless, deprecation of the Mahatma underpins a wider meaning. It is not simply a move to denounce and denigrate Gandhi as the ideological father of India, whose wisdom shaped the destiny and future of India; it’s instead to demolish his ideas of hope, peace, and unwavering determination. Gandhi not only symbolised nationalism or embodied ethicist philosophy; he propounded the philosophy of non-violence. Gandhi’s life and legacy serve as a testament to the power of nonviolence and the ability of one individual to bring about monumental change.

On the other hand, since its birth in 1925, the RSS was striving hard to spread across India, it could not make significant headway. Whatever it achieved was not based on religion, or a counter philosophy to Gandhism. The Banias and upper castes used it as political tool to undercut more egalitarian premises of the anticolonial movement. RSS remained a forum of Maharashtrian Brahmins who nursed sectarian attitude.

Undeniably, the RSS prospered during the ten years of Modi rule. However, this spread has less to do with ideology than with rampant abuse of government machinery by Modi. BJP-RSS used the ten years of Narendra Modi rule to capture the national institutions, be it the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the universities, a sizeable chunk of the administrative apparatus.

It beggars belief that a person who has been chief minister of Gujarat for nearly 12 years and prime minister of India for ten years would not know about Gandhi’s international stature and achievements. Gandhi was chosen as the prestigious Time magazine Man of the Year in 1931. Till he was alive, he featured three times on the cover page of the magazine, a huge feat for any global leader.

October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, was proclaimed the 'International Day of Non-Violence' by the UN in 2007. Since 1969, Gandhi has been on Indian banknotes on a regular basis. In his honour, the Center also grants eminent social workers, international leaders, and civilians the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize each year.

Deprecating Gandhi is thus a strategic design of RSS implemented by Modi to make space for divisive and communal politics of RSS. Three entities are on the hit list of RSS and Modi: Gandhi, Nehru and Congress. A weak Gandhi, depicted as a leader who even did not enjoy the trust and respect of the Congress, could be of much importance and value for RSS. As this propaganda will make the people believe RSS and Modi’s reiteration that he had no relevance.

But Mohan Bhagwat is mistaken. In future, RSS would be a distant bad memory for the people of India, but Gandhi will remain as the foundational father figure. And although, the Congress’s missteps led to its defeat in the 2014 elections, Modi-Shah’s dream to have a Congress-Mukt Bharat will remain merely that. A revived Congress led by Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, as well as other senior leaders, is already giving Modi-Shah nightmares of electoral defeat. If he was so confident that his Hindutva agenda and Hindu-Muslim divisive politics alone would fetch him victory, he would not abuse the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family constantly.

Since Modi claims to be a ‘vishwaguru’, global leader, he ought to know Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela took inspirations from Gandhi. World knows that at least five of his international supporters and admirers also ascended to power using his philosophy. Yet Modi claims that Gandhi was of little importance from the “information he gather during his foreign tours”. Clearly, this is a devious design to convince the people of India, especially the middle classes, that Gandhi had no relevance for the international community. “I am saying this after travelling the world that Gandhi and through him, India should have been recognised…"

Moreover, Modi tries to present Nehru as a political dwarf who had no national or international standing. Modi ought to know like Gandhi, Nehru has been known to be not only the moral axis of this country, but of the world. Nehru has founded the Non-Aligned Movement, a pioneering stand of self-assertion for the Third World. In 1961, drawing on the principles agreed at the Bandung Conference of 1955, the Non-Aligned Movement was formally established in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, through the initiative of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah.

International stature of Nehru could be gauged from the fact that the principles of NAM were largely guided by Panchsheel principles. NAM had sought to "create an independent path in world politics that would not result in member states becoming pawns in the struggles between the major powers."

Nehru promoted parliamentary democracy, secularism, and science and technology during the 1950s, powerfully influencing India's arc as a modern nation. In international affairs, he steered India clear of the two blocs of the Cold War. Michael Brecher, his political biographer, said: “Few statesmen in the twentieth century have attained the stature of Jawaharlal Nehru. As the pre-eminent figure in India’s era of transition he bears comparison with Roosevelt and Churchill, Lenin and Mao, men who towered above their colleagues and guided their people through a period of national crisis.”

Attacking Nehru again is meant to shatter his image amongst the urban middle class, notwithstanding a neoliberal section nurses averseness towards him. RSS is aware that in order to fully dictate the political course of India, it must finish off the images Gandhi and Nehru and erase their lofty historical significance from the minds of the people.

Latest move of Modi to decry and damage the image of Gandhi has given rise to suspicion amongst the people about his true intentions. Results to the 2024 elections will be formally out on June 4. In case INDIA bloc somehow comes to power, in that situation RSS and Modi have some kind tool for their political sustenance and survival. (IPA Service)