Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 28: Even as the BJP, the main opposition party in Karnataka, on Friday targeted the ruling Congress for suspending two government school teachers for participating in an event of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the RSS-linked weekly Organiser has held even the National Advisory Council (NAC) during the Congress-led UPA government era as a “dimagi Naxal,” a term coined by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address to criticise the urban naxals.
In its latest issue, the weekly has sought to link a series of recent public protests to what it has labelled a larger campaign targeting Hindutva. “This precisely is the reason why agitations ranging from farmers to students eventually turn against Hindu civilizational identity,” Organiser editor Prafulla Ketkar wrote in an editorial. The editorial alleged that “Dimagi Naxals” (loosely translated as people with a Maoist mentality) operate secretly in cities and create multiple “frontal organisations” in the name of students, women, labourers, farmers, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and “so-called minorities.”
Several of the recommendations of the NAC implemented by the previous Manmohan Singh government including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Right to Information Act, the National Rural Health Mission, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission and the National Rehabilitation Policy, had not only earned laurels during the UPA era, but most of these policies have stood the test of time and are running through even the Narendra Modi-led NDA government for the last 12 years.
Mr Ketkar, however, wrote, “The National Advisory Council of the Sonia Gandhi –led UPA Government was a classic takeover of the Dimagi Naxals of governance. Their idea of penetrating the bureaucracy, policy machinery, legal system, academia, media, and NGOs is part of the ‘revolutionary strategy.”
The NAC was set up in 2004 to advise the UPA government on policy matters and its recommendations helped shape several important policies. The Council, led by Gandhi, consisted of academics, civil society activists, and technical experts. Gandhi served as the NAC chairperson from 2004 till May 2006, when she resigned from both the Council and the Lok Sabha amid the office-of-profit controversy. She resumed the leadership of the reconstituted NAC in 2010.
Ketkar argued that “Dimagi Naxals” did not carry guns but operate through labels such as “eminent historians or intellectuals, award-winning literary figures, legal luminaries, human rights activists, independent journalists, celebrity actors or actresses, and environmentalists.” “Civil society is their tool of resistance to Constitutional Democracy. …Subversion of democracy through democratic means is their classic style,” said the editorial.
According to the editorial, “Dimagi Naxals” are highly educated and may raise genuine issues, but it alleged that they use their intellect for “destructive purposes.” It also alleged that big technology companies support their activities. “Agenda-driven individuals and organisations control minds through ideas planted in social media spaces and use them against the nation. Algorithms run by their handlers and funders in big-tech companies favour them, helping them influence large masses,” it said.
Mr Ketkar has attributed to the “dimagi naxals” all the activities for which the Congress had been blaming the Sangh Parivar for making attempts to subvert the constitution. In an apparent reference to recent protests over education and other issues, including the ones led by the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Mr Ketkar argued that systemic problems were inevitable in a large country such as India. “Education, healthcare, and overall development model need a drastic overhaul. However, these issues neither emerged in the last twelve years nor exist only in BJP-ruled States. For them, targeting Hindutva as the hegemony and pitching each peripheral, constructed identity as non-Hindu is the larger game,” it said.
The editorial also alleged a broader conspiracy behind various agitations, bringing together radical Islamists, Maoists, evangelical missionaries, intellectuals, legal professionals, NGOs, Bollywood personalities, cultural groups, and sections of the media.
“The collaboration of radical Islamists, Maoists and evangelical missionaries, with the set of select intellectuals, legal professionals, NGOs, Bollywood stars, other cultural groups and media platforms is visible in every agitation that is happening around; it is a pattern and not an accident. This precisely is the reason why agitations ranging from farmers to students eventually turn against Hindu civilizational identity,” it said.
In his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Mr Modi had said: “For years, those with Naxal mentality had their place in the power corridors. They were in government committees as advisors. Maoist thinking impacted policies. We have succeeded in getting rid of armed Naxals in the jungles, but ‘dimagi Naxals’ (intellectual Naxals) are looking for opportunities to create violence, unrest … They want to drag the society on the wrong path.” “These ‘dimagi Naxals’ have to be identified and isolated, and connect the youth with the mainstream,” he said.
In Karnataka, the BJP demanded revoking the suspension of the government teachers who had participated in the RSS route march. The Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi led the charge for the BJP and alleged that the Karnataka government acted out of its ‘hatred’ and called for revoking the suspension order. He further said the grand old party should stop acting with such “vindictiveness.”
“Not just in the last 10 or 12 years, but whenever action has been taken against government employees for participating in Sangh activities since the 1970s and 1980s, or whenever attempts have been made to prevent or restrict the activities of the Sangh in one way or another, the courts have struck them down,” he said.
Union Minister Heavy Industries and Steel Minister HD Kumaraswamy, whose Janata Dal (Secular) is a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Karnataka and at the Centre, also criticised the Congress and asked what wrong was done by the school teachers by participating in the RSS events. “That is not the issue… what is the fault they have done? Is there any problem in attending the RSS meeting? Did any damages take place? Did it cause any violence?” he asked.
The two government school teachers from the Yadgi district — Gururaj Joshi, assistant teacher at the Government Girls High School in Hunasagi, and Anna Saheb Deshmukh, headmaster of the Government Lower Primary School in Kuppi, Surpur taluk — were suspended on Thursday by the Karnataka Education Department for participating in an RSS event.
The Education Department held that their participation in RSS Patha Sanchalana prima facie violated provisions of the Karnataka Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 2021. The Congress has defended the action and said government employees must avoid participating in such events.
“If somebody has complained and if the department thinks… they will take action. Why should our employees participate in events of an unregistered organisation,” Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge told reporters on Friday.