RSS: DEADLY

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Here is an interesting article about the RSS:

Slowly and steadily the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is growing across Punjab. JAGTAR SINGH reports on the Sangh's attempt to co-opt the Sikhs.

IT is the khaki invasion of Punjab. The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh did not go the Akali way once it joined the tercentenary celebrations of the birth of the Khalsa in April last. The Akalis virtually forgot all about it and continued to be busy with their infighting. It was the RSS which took upon itself the responsibility of propagating the ideas and ideals of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Guru who founded the Khalsa, in the interiors of Punjab countryside.

It is a different matter that the radical Akalis have demanded a ban on this organization.

Till date, the RSS has covered 4,000 of about 12,000 villages and by the time the state-level function is organised at Amritsar as part of the tercentenary celebrations on April 2, the target is to establish contacts in about 8,000 villages. According to the RSS leaders, out of the 500 shakhas being organised in this border state, about 250 are in villages.

Not only that, huge quantity of publicity material has been brought out, including one lakh calenders. They have been distributed all over the country. For the people in Punjab, the literature is in Punjabi in Devnagari script. "For us, Guru Gobind SIngh is a national hero. He integrates the Punjabi society. What we are doing is also for the integration of that society," explained an RSS leader.

Radical Sikh leaders interpret the RSS designs as an attack on the exclusive Sikh identity. "In this integration, there is negation of a seperate Sikh identity," said an Akali leader. These leaders go back to earlier similar attempts when Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha, a Sikh scholar, brought out a pamplhet, "Hum Hindu Nahin."

At one stage in Punjab, the Punjabi Hindus disowned their mother tongue to confront the Akali demand for a Punjabi suba. The RSS move is now being seen as an attempt to decommunalise that sectino of Hindu society also.

The members of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, an organisation affiliated to the RSS, recently approached the Damdami Taksal, the Sikh seminary once headed by Sant Jarnail SIngh Bhinderanwale, to get their men trained in Sikh religion and philosophy.

"We told them we admit only Amritdhari Sikhs. They did not approach us again," said Taksal spokeseman Mohkam Singh.

"We will become Amritdhari also," says the RSS leader. The RSS treats the Khalsa as a sect of the Hindus created by Guru Gobind Singh to confront Islam, as apparent from the literature. Hence the objection by the radical Sikhs to the designs of the RSS in this border state who assert their exclusive identity.

The agend of RSS in Punjab is: "The RSS is actively pursuing the philosophy and the path shown by Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh. The RSS has the same perception of a healthy society and an ideal nation as that of the Guru Khalsa. Both these streams are flowing to get assimilated in the same ocean. The need is to integrate both these streams for speedier flow of the national mainstream."

The RSS extensively quotes Guru Gobind Singh to hammer the point that the Khalsa was created to strengthen the Hindu society. The Sikhs are described as yet another Hindu shakti kendra. Even the setting up of the RSS is claimed to be in accordance with the ideals of Guru Gobind Singh.

RSS leaders say the Panj Piaras (five beloved ones) who were the first to partake amrit were rom all over the country on the analogy of the Hindu maths set up by the Shankaracharaya earlier. The RSS writings also refer to Bachittar Natak, considered to be an autobiography of the 10th Guru to point out that the Sikh Gurus were Suryavanshi and descendants of Lav and Kush, the sons of Bhagwan Ram.

Giani Puran Singh, the Jathedar of Akal TAkhat, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, received a lot of flak from Sikh scholars when he dwelt on the theme of the Sikh gurus being descendants of Lav and Kush.

Then there is the questionnaire prepared by RSS for the school-level competitions which has generated a lot of controversy. Now some of the questions:

-To which caste Bhai Mardana belonged?
-Which of the Sikh Gurus were Sodhis?
-What was the name of the Pathan who stabbed Guru Gobind Singh?
-Which Mughal emperor detained Guru nanak?
-Name the Guru who deputed forces to liberate Ram Janambhumi.
-Name India's first bachelor Prime Minister.
-In which war with Pakistan not an inch of land was allowed to be occupied?

CPI veteran Satya Pal Dang has expressed strong reservation about the questionnaire and has brought under the notice of Cheif Minister Parkash Badal. Meanwhile, the attempt of "assimilation" continues.
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