The same people who now label others anti-national for not celebrating a cricket victory themselves did not participate in independence celebrations, says AAP’s Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj
NEW DELHI — Reacting to Delhi BJP government’s plan to include the role of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the country’s freedom struggle in Delhi’s school curriculum, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has said students should be taught the “entire truth” about the organisation and its affiliates rather than a one-sided narrative of glorification.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, AAP’s Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj said while the social work of the RSS could certainly be included, history cannot be whitewashed. “Children should also know that the RSS had no role in India’s freedom struggle, that the Hindu Mahasabha—its ideological parent—formed governments with the Muslim League, and that Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, was associated with both the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha,” he said.
Bharadwaj traced the origins of the Hindu Mahasabha, founded in 1915 under leaders like VD Savarkar and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, and the RSS in 1925. By the time India attained freedom, he said, the Hindu Mahasabha was 32 years old and the RSS 22, “but history records no contribution of either organisation to the independence movement. Instead, they opposed the Quit India Movement of 1942 led by Mahatma Gandhi and asked Hindus to join the British Army during the Second World War.”
He pointed to the political choices of the Hindu Mahasabha, which formed coalition governments with the Muslim League in Bengal, Sindh and the North-West Frontier Province during the 1940s. “Even as Gandhi and Congress leaders were imprisoned for launching ‘Quit India’ movement, Hindu Mahasabha leaders like Shyama Prasad Mukherjee were serving as ministers in coalition governments with the Muslim League,” Bharadwaj said.
He accused the RSS of staying aloof not only from the freedom struggle but also from the celebrations of independence in 1947. “The same people who now label others anti-national for not celebrating a cricket victory themselves did not participate in independence celebrations. They even opposed the Tricolour, refusing to hoist it at their headquarters in Nagpur for over five decades,” he alleged.
Bharadwaj also underlined the RSS’s influence over the BJP while officially claiming to be ‘non-political’. “The RSS continues to interfere in every decision of the BJP, despite calling itself a cultural organisation,” he said.
On the issue of teaching RSS history in schools, Bharadwaj stressed the need for striking a balance. “History has both good and bad. Teach about the RSS’s shakhas, discipline, and training, but don’t erase its political record. If Akbar, Ashoka, Nadir Shah, Hitler, and Gandhi are taught with their full history, the same must apply to RSS, Hindu Mahasabha, and Jan Sangh,” he said, posing a direct question to Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta: “Will the complete history of RSS be taught or only selective parts?”
AAP warned that teaching only a glorified version of RSS history would be a disservice to future generations and to the truth of India’s struggle for independence.
