Author: Shyam Khosla
Publication: The Organiser
Date: February 25, 2001
"Saffron is the colour of help',
says a letter to the Editor in The, Pioneer. "The lads in Khaki knickers
are once again among the first to offer relief to the calamity struck"
announces a headline in Outlook that is no friend of the RSS. A correspondent
of the Voice of America is constrained to comment in a broadcast, "My entire
idea of the RSS stands shattered today." There is all round praise for
the selfless and dedicated cadres of the RSS for their prompt response
to the devastating earthquake that shook Gujarat and claimed several thousand
lives on January 26.
"Across Gujarat, the cadres were
the saviours. Even as the State machinery went comatose in the first two
days after the quake, the cadre-based machinery of the Sangh fanned out
through the State. Approximately 35,000 RSS members in uniform were pressed
into service", wrote Saba Naqvi Bhaumik, a Special Correspondent of Outlook,
adding that services of thousands of Sangh sympathisers among' doctors,
engineers, traders, contractors and other middle class professionals were
also tapped for the rescue and relief operation. The correspondent gave
graphic details of how 30 persons trapped in. Mansi apartment in Ahmedabad
were rescued by the RSS cadres with the help of a rope through a window
on the sixth floor. For the next week, the cadres setup camp outside the
complex. The manner in which they functioned is typical of RSS mobilisation.
Ahmedabad Collector K. Srinivas is quoted saying: "it is the old tradition
in the RSS to he the first in any disaster site: floods, cyclone, drought
and now quake."
Eye witness accounts
"In Kachchh too, the RSS was the
first to reach the affected areas. At Anjar, a town in ruins, the RSS was
present much before the army and took the lead in fi riding survivors and
fishing out the dead. In rural Ratnal again the RSS played saviour", Bhaumik
wrote in the weekly.
Giving an eye witness account of
the relief work one Ravi Shankar Prasad camping in Ahmedabad wrote to Pioneer,
"The role of the RSS and the VHP deserves special notice because of the
extraordinary efforts they have taken in providing relief and rescue. The
RSS swayamsevaks were in the forefront in removing bodies from the debris.
They reached Bachau on January 26 itself and organised effective rescue
operations from January 27." Praising their -selfless services, Prasad
says about 30 per cent of the patients treated at medical camp organised
by the RSS and the VHP were Muslims and they too were given the best possible
medical aid 'without discrimination.
This was too much for the petty
minded secularists to stomach. A "rabidly communal outfit" that had been
the whipping boy for more than 50 years is praised by all and sundry for
their devoted services to the victims of the worst calamity without any
discrimination! It is impossible. This impression must be "corrected" by
hook or crook. The Dirty Tricks Department of the Congress goes into action.
Gujarat Congress leader Ahmed Patel organises a demonstration by Muslim
youth against the VHP for "discriminating against the minorities" in distribution
of relief. The demonstration is well timed. It is held during Sonia Gandhi's
visit to the State so that she can send the message across to the international
community. She was presumably duly briefed that the "communal" RSS and
VHP had managed to win the hearts of the people and that that "distortion"
has to be corrected. As is her wont, she goes to town with the allegation,
without caring to verify the facts, that there was discrimination on the
basis of religion during the relief operations in the BJP ruled Gujarat.
Secular canards
There are hot many takers of Sonia
Gandhi's vicious allegation. The people of Gujarat know the truth. Not
many outside the State are taken in by the canard. The VHP "Secretary General,
Dr Parvin Togadiya, accuse" Ahmed Patel of recruiting mercenaries for the
demonstration in a bid to defame the organisation. The Congress President
is a novice. She is easily taken in by hangers on and makes false and,
at times, stupid statements. Has she forgotten the selfless work done by
RSS workers led by Shri Jit Ram, Advocate who is the local Sanghchalak,
to retrieve the bodies of victims of a mid-air collision near Charkhi Dadri
in Haryana, a few years back? Does she remember that most of those killed
in the collision were Muslims? Did the RSS discriminate against them on
the basis of religion? Is it not a fact, that the RSS has never discriminated
on the basis of caste, religion, sex or region in providing relief to victims
of natural calamities? And that is because the RSS swayamsevaks have imbibed
Hindu ethos that believes in Sarva Pantha Sambhava.
The Congress having cooked up a
charge against the "common enemy", the communists and the secular brigade
couldn't afford to be left behind. They came up with the ridiculous and
patently false allegation that the RSS and other allied outfits had "hijacked"
relief materials in the quake-hit regions of Gujarat. A section of the
media, particularly the English language media, that is hell bent to defame
the RSS and other Hindutva outfits found in the charge a god-send opportunity
to "balance" their stories. Outlook that is all praise for the RSS and
the VHP relief work too falls in the trap and says the RSS has positioned
itself to be one of the major beneficiaries of the massive amounts pouring
in. Nothing can be farther from truth. The fact is that the RSS and the
VHP have raised funds to provide relief and to rebuild villages and towns
ravaged by the quake. There is no question of the Sangh becoming the-beneficiary
of the aid pouring in. That is not the RSS tradition.
Is it a PR exercise?
While admitting that the RSS had
come to the aid of the people of Gujarat, Outlook Correspondent observes,
"What takes away from it is that it has also used the tragedy as a PR exercise."
What is the weekly trying to convey? Does it want the RSS to remain a mute
spectator even as its dedicated cadres rendering valuable service to the
society are accused of discrimination and what not? Does the Outlook realise
that the charges levelled against the Sangh are a part of the ideological
battle the communists and so-called liberals and pseudo-secularists are
waging against Hindutva.
The RSS believes in silent work.
The RSS founder kept the Sangh miles away from the media and did not set-up
any PR network, as the Sangh believes in silently working for national
reconstruction. The Sangh was misconstrued as a secret organisation. The
RSS did not respond even as motivated allegations were levelled against
it. The RSS is now one of the largest voluntary organisations in the world
and has immense influence in all walks of national life. It can no longer
afford to be media shy. However, it is patently unjust to suggest that
the RSS work during natural calamities like the Gujarat quake is a part
of PR exercise.
John Dayal a leader of sort of the
Christians indulges, in one falsehood after the other to defame the patriotic
organisation like the RSS but he and others of his ilk are not to be seen
in the quake-ravaged Gujarat. Same is true of the champions of secularism,
the communists and fellow travellers. Have any of them taken the trouble
of visiting a single affected village in Gujarat? Are they too busy fighting
their ideological battle against the RSS to find time for the survivors
or the dead?
The RSS, on its part, is doing all
it can to be of same help to the devastated State. Its leaders and swayamsevaks
have set shinking examples in this hour of grief and agony. Senior RSS
leader, Shri H.V. Seshadri, who declined to accept the highest office in
the Sangh on grounds of failing health, camped in Gujarat for several days
to supervise the relief effort despite his, poor health. Union Home Minister,
Shri L.K. Advani was the first to rush to the State to guide the relief
operations. He has played a significant role in boosting the morale of
the victims by his personal example. His presence among the survivors and
his determination to build new towns and Villages has reassured the proud
people of Gujarat that all is not lost and they can together build a new
Gujarat.
