Is the government afraid of the RSS?

The manner in which the government is making overturers to Baba Ramdev
gives an impression that they are extremely afraid of his movement. I
wonder if it is due to the support the RSS has extended to him, and the
mobilisation of the Swayamsevaks in the cause.

To understand, perhaps we should look at the history of the Emergency of
1975-77. At the time, The Economist, in recognition of the situation,
wrote: "The underground campaign against Mrs Gandhi claims to be the
only non-left-wing revolutionary force in the world, disavowing any
bloodshed and class struggle. Indeed, it might even be called
right-wing, since it is dominated by the Hindu communalist party, Jana
Sangh, and its banned "cultural" (some say para-military) affiliate, the
RSS. But the plat苯orm at the moment has only one non-ideological plank:
to bring democracy back to India." [The Economist (London), "The
Opposition to Indira Wins Friends and Influence" (December 4, 1976)]

The full article is enclosed for your reference. It needs to be
mentioned that a huge majority of those jailed during this period (some
say it is more than 80%) were members of the RSS and its affiliates.
Also, the leaders who had gone underground were actively supported by
the people of all economic and social strata.
(Article by Shri.Ashok Chowgule)


THE OPPOSITION TO INDIRA WINS FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE
The Economist, December 4, 1976.

India's underground movement has changed its strategy. Until a few
weeks ago it had tried to press Indira Gandhi - through mass
demonstrations, clandes負ine propaganda and open petitions - into
lifting her emergency rule. But last month's formal postponement of
elections for yet another year - breaking explicit promises to members
of the ruling Congress party - has convinced the underground leaders
that the present gov苟rnment is irreversibly authoritarian. So their
prior虹ty now is to get Mrs Gandhi out.

Not by violence. The underground campaign against Mrs Gandhi claims to
be the only non-left-wing revolu負ionary force in the world, disavowing
any bloodshed and class struggle. Indeed, it might even be called
right-wing, since it is dominated by the Hindu commu要alist party, Jana
Sangh, and its banned "cultural" (some say para-military) affiliate, the
RSS. But the platform at the moment has only one non-ideological plank:
to bring democracy back to India.

The underground movement has become progressively bolder in the 17
months since the emergency was im計osed, partly because of tacit support
from the forces of Mrs Gandhi's law and order. Last week sympathetic
policemen helped one of its most wanted leaders, Dr Subramaniam Swamy,
to slip out of the country through a major airport. Sympathetic censors
have passed politi苞al messages through the post and in and out of jail;
agents in post offices have disconnected troublesome taps on telephones;
civil servants have provided access to official files.

One of these files which was leaked to the opposi負ion provides an
explanation for Mrs Gandhi's unexpect苟d decision to postpone the
election. Several of her intelligence services are said to have told
her that under present circumstances she would win only 220 to 270 seats
in the lower house - at best 130 fewer than the Congress party won at
the last election in 1971 and only a bare majority in a 520-seat house.

Communications have become so easy for the under茆round that its top
leaders talk by telephone almost every day - sometime on international
lines - using codes and false names. When vulnerable urban printing
presses are confiscated, clandestine newspapers are duplicated on
hundreds of small local machines and de衍ivered by truck and bicycle.
Money is no object for the movement: 60,000 to 70,000 small
contributions have been collected. Underground leaders are given
sanctu苔ry in homes throughout the country, even when they are known to
have high prices on their heads. The movement claims that not a single
activist has been caught be苞ause of an informer. Some 30,000 men on
the wanted list are still at large.

The ground troops of this operation consist of tens of thousands of
cadres who are organised down to the village level into four-man cells.
Most of them are RSS regulars, though more and more new young re苞ruits
are coming in. The other opposition parties which started out as
partners in the underground have effectively abandoned the field to the
Jana Sangh and RSS, especially since the arrest last June of India's
most notable fugitive, the Socialist railway leader, George Fernandes.
The Socialists had been carrying out an independent campaign of railway
sabotage: this con負inues today as a freelance effort by disgruntled
rail趴aymen.

The function of the RSS cadre network - and of the thousand or so
militants who are travelling throughout India at any one time - is
mainly to spread the anti-Gandhi word. Once the ground is prepared and
political consciousness raised, so the leaders argue, any spark can set
off the revolutionary prairie fire.

One likely flashpoint, according to underground strategists, would be a
protest against forced sterili貞ation. There were 21 incidents this
autumn in the state of Uttar Pradesh alone in which Mrs Gandhi's
cen負ral reserve police fired on angry crowds; 467 people are alleged to
have been killed.

No oil to cook with

Another potential source of spontaneous combustion are the price rises
and shortages many Indians are suffer虹ng from despite the
well-publicised stabilising effect of the emergency. A disappearance of
cooking oil in Bombay recently led to attacks on ration shops and
obliged the government to rush in supplies from other states. Mrs
Gandhi conceded at the recent Congress party meeting at Gauhati that
price control is weaken虹ng - and blamed it on a relaxation of the
emergency.

This claim about relaxation is hotly contested by her opponents. True,
some well-known political figures have been released from jail but an
estimated 10,000 others are said to have been arrested since June.
About half of these were taken into custody in Bombay at the end of
October during a visit by Mrs Gandhi's son Sanjay, although most were
released the next day. Another category of prisoner, however, is still
filling the jails - such as the Times of India assistant edi負or, Mr
Sundar Rajan, who was recently arrested for a piece he wrote for a
foreign newspaper. He is one of some 270 imprisoned journalists.

Another index of increasing repression cited by the opposition is the
number of prisoners who have died under mysterious circumstances. These
include a well-known lawyer and a smuggler who was an ally-turned-ene衫y
of Sanjay Gandhi. The smuggler's body was found in the Jumna river, 11
miles from Delhi's Tihar jail from which he allegedly escaped.

Stories like these are grist for the underground mill which circulates
news (and rumors) not fit to print in India's censored press.
Underground papers also reprint critical foreign reports on India to
con赳ince the timid that the outside world cares. One re貞ult of 17
months of underground propaganda, say its purveyors, is that the timid
are becoming less so.

They say there is a greater willingness to grumble in public; that
people sometimes now hoot at Mrs Gandhi's picture in cinemas, and heckle
at political meetings; and that political posters have been defaced so
that Mrs Gandhi's 20-point emergency programme is amended to read 420 -
the number of the fraud section in India's penal code. Another sign of
anti-Gandhi feeling is a series of defeats for the Congress party in the
few local elections which have not been post計oned under the emergency.

Still, the underground leaders do not delude them貞elves that revolution
is round the corner. Public opinion, they accept, needs to be further
prepared. Another four key target groups must be mobilised: dis貞ident
Congressmen; dissident bureaucrats and police; students; and organised
labour. The Jana Sangh is not counting on the peasants as a
revolutionary force in the Maoist style because it will not promise
radical land reform. But it is trying to educate the peasants - and
solicit their money.

Students and labour, it claims, have already been largely won over: the
Jana Sangh controls most of the important student unions, and in October
three impor負ant trade unions - one pro-Jana Sangh, one pro-Social虹st
and one pro-Marxist - combined forces to fight for a restoration of
workers' bonuses through a series of one-day strikes and petitions.
Bureaucrats and Con茆ress party members are harder to draw into the
opposi負ion camp because they have more to lose. Corrupt and
power-hungry civil servants and policemen have been the major
beneficiaries of the emergency: the going rates for services rendered
are said to have multiplied four to ten times. But many officers and
officials are un苞omfortable in their new roles and play both sides.

Dr Swamy, who last month became the first member to be expelled from
India's parliament on political grounds, characterises the present
system as a bureau苞ratic dictatorship. "If Mrs Gandhi had a party
run要ing this country, I would have been apprehensive. But by
transferring power from the party to the bureaucra苞y, she has made it
overbearing, irresponsible and cor訃upt. This is our single biggest
advantage."

Names not on the list

Members of Mrs Gandhi's Congress party have not been insensitive to this
erosion of their power. Some mem苑ers of parliament now insist on
police protection when they tour their constituencies. Others have a
more specific reason for opposing the new regime: their names are not on
Sanjay Gandhi's list of 250 new candi苓ates to replace sitting members.

Until recently Congress discontent was expressed largely in private
criticism, although some party men have gone so far as to offer support
and hospitality to underground leaders. In the last month more than 150
members of the Congress party actually took a public stand. Before the
recent constitutional amending ses貞ion of parliament a group of
Congressmen told minis負ers of their reluctance to vote for the
amendment bill. They were persuaded to support it - by 366 votes to
four - in exchange for a pledge that the election would be announced
soon. When the bill for postponing the election was tabled only days
later, the government vote dropped to 210 with over 150 Congressmen
abstain虹ng and the normally faithful Communist party voting against.

"What the Congress party is waiting for", said an opposition spokesman,
"is evidence that Mrs Gandhi is not all-powerful." This is what the
underground hopes to provide.