Reservations And RSS

Standpoint: The Sangh's embrace of reservations is correct

My colleague Aravindan drew up this brief review of RSS' position and views on reservations - in view of all the recent rhetoric about the topic.

Golwalkar's hesitation. The second chief of the Sangh was initially of a more orthodox bent of mind.

• However, his views on social issues evolved into a reformist one later on.

• This change is largely credited to his interactions with Dr BR Ambedkar and a certain Dattopant Thengadi (former's election agent at one time!)

• Thengadi would later on found key Sangh organisations such as Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS).

• Under Thengadi's influence, Golwalkar mobilised all Hindu acharyas to declare that untouchability was against Hindu shastras.

How Deoras handled 'weaponised reservations': He's known to have intervened and persuaded the larger Sangh to not only accept but also embrace the idea of reservations.

• Deoras was Golwakar;'s successor and had significantly grown the Sangh.

• In recorded transcripts we find him urging Sangh members to take a more empathetic view towards those that were deserving of affirmative action.

• "I request you all to imagine yourself in the place of those for whom the Reservations are meant. Try to enter their minds and see the present condition of those of our brethren, who have been neglected for hundreds of years. Understand their feelings."

Debt of forefathers. One interesting view that comes from the Sangh is from Sukhadev Navale, a Sangh veteran and senior leader.

• "Our forefathers have taken a massive loan on our account, we are under obligation to repay it."

• "We can't say that we individually did not perpetrate any injustice on Dalits."

• "We can't claim inheritance in respect of only good things. We would have to accept our heritage along with the debt. There is no escape from it."

Navale's views might definitely agitate many of us today - you may or may not agree with it - but these were the views of many within the Sangh.

• The vastly increased scope of reservations and complete abuse of the system came after Navale's time.

• Nevertheless, Hindutva today has to counter a fast rising neo-Buddhist Ambedkarite mobilisation of SCs by the Congress.

• It needs the kind of engagement and empathy that Navale has described.

Silver Lining: The Hindi heartland may not be buying into the brinkmanship around reservations and proportional redistribution.

• For example, Nitish Kumar has not raked up the issue of caste survey backed increased reservations in this election season.

• He rarely mentions it in campaigns and has stopped asking for votes.

• His main plank is good governance and PM Modi's leadership.

• All this only months after hiking quotas in Bihar based on caste survey numbers (50% then to 65% now)

• Perhaps we've reached peak-reservation - politically and socially?

Muddy Waters: Kanhaiya Kumar Meets Sunita Kejriwal, What's Up?

Kanhaiya Kumar met Sunita Kejriwal yesterday. It was a 'courtesy meeting'.

A Congress candidate meeting the de-facto leader of a party in alliance with them - not much to read is there?

But there is more than meets the eye. Some local Congress leaders have been angered by the party's move to field Kanhaiya Kumar in North East Delhi.

• In the last elections Kumar had contested from his home town Begusarai in Bihar on a CPI party ticket. He scored 22% of the votes and came a distant second. He quit CPI last year and instead joined the Congress.

• Arvinder Singh Lovely, the Delhi Congress Chief resigned a week after Kumar's ticket was announced.

• One of Lovely's complaints was that tickets were being given to 'total outsiders'.

Kanhaiya Kumar thinks AAP can help. Realising his weakened position within the Congress Kumar started reaching out to AAP early enough.

• He was generous in his praise of Arvind Kejriwal's freebies in TV interviews the very next day after his ticket was confirmed.

• It's said he may have also helped with mobilising crowds for Sunita Kejriwal's roadshow as a token of cooperation.

• So that's the political context of Kanhaiya Kumar meeting Sunita Kejriwal yesterday.