Juvenile Antics
Ramesh Patange
TO attempt teaching patriotism to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is like the proverbial carrying coals to Newcastle. Prakash Ambedkar who happens to be an MP and his chums seems to have a severe bout of unprovoked ‘patriotism’. He should betimes seek expert counselling to get rid of the ailment. This patriotic fever (not fervour) has led them to undertake juvenile antics like organising an attempt to hoist the tricolour on the office of the RSS. This was as jejunely infantile as it was mendacious. Some newspapers reported hoisting of the national flag on the Dadar (Mumbai) office of the RSS. Obviously, the reporters did not do their homework.
First, the building called Pitricchaya is not the office of the RSS, nor does the entire building form the RSS premises. Only two apartments in the building are meant as the residential accommodation for the Sangh pracharaks. Over a couple of dozen Republican Party of India (RPI) activists swooped on the road, hastily hoisted the flag on the ‘gate’ of the building and fled. In fact the Sangh swayamsevaks who resided their had decided to receive the RPI activists cordially. But that was not to be.
Some RPI activists also had planned to go and hoist the flag on the Hedgewar Bhavan office of the Sangh in Nagpur. They had also informed about their plans. The resident workers at the Hedgewar Bhavan had made preparations for the reception to be accorded to the RPI workers. It was decided that the RPI enthusiasts were to be allowed to perform their ‘ceremony’. But the Sangh workers were disappointed as the “threatened arrival” of the RPI men never took place. The Member of Parliament Ambedkar told the Lok Sabha, “This year also some workers had proceeded to go to the Sangh office to hoist a flag on it, but they were intercepted and stopped.” This statement is not true, as far as our information goes.
It is not possible even in the wildest dream that the Sangh workers would prevent anyone from hoisting the national flag. Prakash Ambedkar and his fellow-travellers only indulge in such “stunts” about the national flag, while the Sangh swayamsevaks sacrifice their lives. In the Lok Sabha, where this Ambedkar is free to make such statements, Mohan Ravle had pointed out that in 1950 fifteen Sangh swayamsevaks, who tried to enter Kashmir holding the national flag proudly aloft, were gunned down.
A few years back a Vidyarthi Parishad worker has halted a group of Naxalites from committing a disrespect to the tricolour. He was threatened to be killed but he never budged. And in the end he was killed. We do not know (and there is no point in finding out) if the Republican Party activists can muster enough courage to go and hoist the national flag in the Lal Chowk in Srinagar; but recently several thousand Sangh workers had gone to the same Lal Chowk in Srinagar under Dr Murli Manohar Joshi's leadership and they did hoist the flag there. If Prakash Ambedkar and his mates are still having the high fever of patriotism, they may go to Srinagar and try their luck at hoisting the flag there. At least they can prove their mettle by rushing to Calcutta and hoisting the tricolour on the headquarters of the Communist Party (Marxists) who incidentally cannot care less for the national flag. Infantile bravado cannot pass off as bravery.
Prakash Ambedkar has a sinister ulterior motive behind his targeting the Sangh office. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh regards the saffron flag as its guru. The saffron flag is not hoisted on the Sangh office on all days. Since the BJP-led Government has come to the Centre, those who are ideologically opposed to this Government never tire of making use of several terms associated with this saffron flag. Along with the words like culturisation and Manuvad, the term saffronisation is also profusely abused. Prakash Ambedkar is extremely allergic to the saffron flag.
But he should seriously try to understand the stand his revered grandfather Babasaheb had taken about the saffron flag. He should have known what Shri Khairmode had written in Vol X of the Life of Babasaheb. There Khairmode has given the letter of Shri Thakre of the Prabodhan under the title “Why was the efforts of the saffron were foiled in Delhi?” Thakre (Balasaheb Thakre's father) says in this letter, “On July 10, 1947, Gadre, Bole and Co. along with a score others arrived at Dr Ambedkar's Rajgriha. They presented Dr Ambedkar two saffron flags. The historic saffron flag of the old Maharashtra should become the National Flag, they urged.
Dr Ambedkar wryly said, ‘It is your high mindedness that you wish to entrust this work to a ‘Mahar's son’ like me when such great people like you belonging to the great organisation are there. But if you could lend me your powerful support I may be able to accomplish this task.’ In the same letter there is another incident. “Dr Ambedkar was selected on the Flag Committee. And when he arrived at Dadar on July 3, 1947, Shri Surba Tipnis went to see him. Dr Ambedkar said to Tipnis, ‘Even till the time of the formation of the Flag Committee there is no substantial agitation in Maharashtra for our saffron flag! How is it?’”
But Prakash Ambedkar has a more hidden agenda. And that is to set the tricolour and the saffron flag at each other's throat. It is indeed a part of his political ploys. This over-vocal respect for the national flag and “What have you”, is but of a secondary consideration for the grandson of his illustrious grandfather. Sangh holds the tricolour or the national flag as worthy of extreme and solemn respect. The Sangh attitude towards the national functions should be understood dispassionately. Sangh has taught its followers that they should not form a separate groups, and should not observe a separate function. Sangh swayamsevaks should join the functions that are organised publicly.
They should attend these public functions and honour the flag and pay their respects to it. The swayamsevaks follow this teaching. Prakash Ambedkar is free to suggest that the Sangh should change this policy and set up a separate venue and celebrate Independence Day and Republic Day. But if Prakash takes such a straightforward course, it cannot serve his politics, and, what is more, it cannot fetch wide publicity. Therefore one has to do something striking, something straight, something outre to attract attention. So to acquire great publicity (of whatever nature) one has to have recourse to such capers and horseplay. And Prakash Ambedkar has done exactly that, at which he seems to be adept.
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