What makes the axis between the government and the RSS so problematic is not just its extra-constitutionality but the sheer incompatibility of the sangh and its ideology with a democratic, inclusive polity and society
A bizarre political spectacle took place in Delhi this week that no amount of sophistry can square with the principles of a modern democratic republic.
A ‘cultural’ organization known as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh held a conclave for which it summoned top ministers of the Narendra Modi government to present themselves and provide an account of the official work they have been doing over the past 15 months. Among those who turned up were the Prime Minister himself, as well as the Defense Minister and the Home Minister.
This axis between the government and the RSS is unhealthy for the obvious reason that it represents a classic case of what con artists call ‘bait and switch’.
(This article first appeared in wire.in on September 4, 2015. Siddharth Varadarajan is a Founding Editor of The Wire. He was earlier the Editor of The Hindu and is a recipient of the Ramnath Goenka Award for Journalist of the Year. He has taught Economics at New York University and Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, besides working at the Times of India and the Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory, Shiv Nadar University.)