By M K George
Rome, August 1, 2013: The French have a word, an ‘eminence grise’ (grey eminence) which refers to a powerful decision-maker or advisor who operates behind the scenes or in a non-public or unofficial capacity.
This phrase originally referred to Francois Leclerc du Tremblay, the right-hand man of Cardinal Richelieu. Leclerc was a Capuchin friar who was renowned for his beige (grey) robe attire who himself never became a cardinal, but had complete control over Cardinal Richelieu. (Wikipedia)
Something similar is happening in India.
Instead of an individual, it is an organization that is the powerful decision-maker that from behind the scene is controlling the governance of this great country, India.
Let Indians not forget:
That the organization claims to be the world’s biggest volunteer group, with a membership across India of at least 6 million.
That this organization has spread itself out to every nook and corner of the country and even abroad.
That this organization ‘draws its inspiration from European fascist movements and groups such as the Italian Fascist Party, the organization aims to spread the ideology of Hindutva to strengthen the Hindu community and promote an ideal of upholding an Indian culture and its civilizational values’(Wikipedia).
That this organization was banned in India three times for the reason, as told by Sardar Patel, “to root out the forces of hate and violence that are at work in our country and imperil the freedom of the nation and darken her fair name.”
That history has records that this organization was behind the murder of Mahatma Gandhi.
That this organization, now prides itself as a patriotic organization, but had detached herself from the Indian Freedom Movement, sided with the British, even to the point of begging pardon from the colonialists to save themselves.
That this organization runs summer camps, where volunteers train with rifles, and its political wing, whose candidates now hold the highest office
That the ideology of this organization clearly visualized a single religion in this multi-religious world of India.
That this organization is ‘openly asking India to be a Hindu country and the present government has taken several steps in this regard by encroaching upon Muslim personal law, taking away the semi-autonomous status of Muslim majority Kashmir, and changing citizenship law to exclude Muslim refugees’ (Ashish Swain, 2020)
That they want to get rid of the ‘secular’ from India’s Constitution
That one of its ideologues said clearly, ‘We Will Rewrite the Constitution to Reflect Bharatiyata’ (Vrinda Gopinath, 2016)
That they intimidate, attack, and kill, with no qualm of conscience.
That huge funding from inside and outside the country supports them.
That this group does not publicize its annual budget but says all its funds come from private donations. (Frayer and Khan, 2019)
That parliamentarians with the background of this organization had three times better ministerial prospects than the others
That of the 53 ministers of the present government, 38 have a background of this organization— 71 percent of the total.
That the core areas of education, culture and labor portfolios are handled by ministers with close ties to this organisation (Pandey and Arnimesh, 2020)
That this organization is ‘the ideological parent of the ruling party and has finally had its say in formation of a new education policy. That from the name change of the ministry to emphasis on culture, morals, citizenship and regional languages, the influence of the organization can be seen all over the New Education Policy 2020’. (Rahul Srivastava, 2020)
That today the organization ‘is in a position to influence the highest decision-making in the country and has its people in key positions in both government and outside. They believe in this robust nationalism,’ Rahul Gupta (quoted by Murali Krishna 2018)
That a photo of one of the leading figures of this organization who was allegedly linked to the murder of Mahatma Gandhi now sneers at Gandhiji’s picture in the holy precincts of our parliament.
Moreover, and sadly,
That India’s prime ruler prides himself being primarily a ‘Sevak’ (Servant) of that organization.
Tahil Hamut Izgil wrote in New York Times (July 29-30, 2023) on ‘the tragedy in my Uyghur homeland can be a lesson for the world’:
‘I urge you: Do not ignore the signs of creeping authoritarianism. Do not make the mistake of thinking that what has happened to my people could not happen elsewhere, that it could happen in your country. It can.”
(Jesuit Father M K George is based in Rome. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official editorial position of Matters India.)