National Interest: Nagpur, we have a problem
Why the BJP’s talented leaders are so smug with ossified RSS as their default boss
One of the walls in my office displays a selection of the most devastating works of E.P. Unny, now India’s finest political cartoonist by far, and a worthy successor of the late Abu Abraham on the pages of this newspaper. Dated December 12, 2000, it has K.S. Sudarshan, the then RSS chief (sarsanghchalak), as a schoolteacher. Vajpayee, in school uniform (don’t miss the shorts, although, since it is black and white, we can only guess the colour), is squatting on the floor as the only pupil in the class, a slate in his hands. His question to the teacher: “Tell me Sudarshanji, what happened when Godseji went to the prayer meeting to protect Gandhiji?”
That had appeared in a week when some of Sudarshanji’s statements had hit the funny headlines, particularly his conspiracy theory that the Babri Masjid had not been brought down by kar sevaks, but by a bomb planted by the Congress. I have to confess, though, at that point I thought the cartoon was a bit vicious, even by the standards of Unny’s acid-dipped pen. It took me nearly four years to realise it wasn’t, and why.
I had gone to Nagpur to record a Walk the Talk for NDTV 24x7 (‘BJP shaken as RSS chief targets Vajpayee, family and aide Mishra’, IE, April 12, 2005, http://goo.gl/ LBc5z, video at http://goo.gl/S1Cgk) after a sudden invitation from the sarsanghchalak’s office. Sudarshanji had thoughtfully called me for a preparatory chat over dinner the previous evening. The meal, sitting on the floor in his semi-lit, gadget-less kitchen, was basic. RSS leaders, in fact, are usually so spartan they would make the Maoists look like rotten hedonists. And I don’t know how, but almost inevitably, the talk shifted to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Of course, Sudarshanji told me, it was an outrage to blame the RSS.
Full Article Visit Below -
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/national-interest-nagpur-we-have-a-problem/1022596/
Why the BJP’s talented leaders are so smug with ossified RSS as their default boss
One of the walls in my office displays a selection of the most devastating works of E.P. Unny, now India’s finest political cartoonist by far, and a worthy successor of the late Abu Abraham on the pages of this newspaper. Dated December 12, 2000, it has K.S. Sudarshan, the then RSS chief (sarsanghchalak), as a schoolteacher. Vajpayee, in school uniform (don’t miss the shorts, although, since it is black and white, we can only guess the colour), is squatting on the floor as the only pupil in the class, a slate in his hands. His question to the teacher: “Tell me Sudarshanji, what happened when Godseji went to the prayer meeting to protect Gandhiji?”
That had appeared in a week when some of Sudarshanji’s statements had hit the funny headlines, particularly his conspiracy theory that the Babri Masjid had not been brought down by kar sevaks, but by a bomb planted by the Congress. I have to confess, though, at that point I thought the cartoon was a bit vicious, even by the standards of Unny’s acid-dipped pen. It took me nearly four years to realise it wasn’t, and why.
I had gone to Nagpur to record a Walk the Talk for NDTV 24x7 (‘BJP shaken as RSS chief targets Vajpayee, family and aide Mishra’, IE, April 12, 2005, http://goo.gl/ LBc5z, video at http://goo.gl/S1Cgk) after a sudden invitation from the sarsanghchalak’s office. Sudarshanji had thoughtfully called me for a preparatory chat over dinner the previous evening. The meal, sitting on the floor in his semi-lit, gadget-less kitchen, was basic. RSS leaders, in fact, are usually so spartan they would make the Maoists look like rotten hedonists. And I don’t know how, but almost inevitably, the talk shifted to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Of course, Sudarshanji told me, it was an outrage to blame the RSS.
Full Article Visit Below -
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/national-interest-nagpur-we-have-a-problem/1022596/
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