Over the past 10 months, the BJP and its ideological fountainhead, the RSS, have engaged with minority communities, including Muslims and Christians, as part of their outreach programmes, but in distinctly different ways. Despite having an ideological alignment, the minority outreach programmes of these two organisations focus on specific social and political needs.
Senior RSS functionaries call it “a nationalist approach through different ways of articulation” depending on the different political scenarios. Senior BJP leaders say the approach of a political party should be aligned with the “general belief” and the “local political equation”.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, while delivering a speech at a programme in Chhattisgarh’s Ambikapur in November, said all Indians have the “same DNA” and all are Hindus culturally. Bhagwat and other senior functionaries have been meeting groups of Muslim intellectuals while the organisation continues to hold discussions with Muslim professionals. The BJP, however, carries out its outreach programme among specific minority groups like Pasmanda Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, the Syro-Malabar Christian community in Kerala and so on.
Speaking to News18, J Nandakumar, head of RSS’s Pragya Pravah and a central committee member, said: “RSS has always been talking to everyone. We might be getting more attention now than before or the programmes and speeches are getting more prominence because people are curious to know and understand. The approach of both the RSS and the BJP is aimed at national welfare and nation-building. The articulation may be different.”
The Outreach
Ten days before kick-starting the crucial phase of the Karnataka election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kerala on a two-day trip and met eight top spiritual leaders from the state’s churches, including the head of Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Cardinal George Alencherry, and Syro-Malankara Catholic Church head Cardinal Baselios Cleemis.
The PM met the delegation of Kerala’s Syro-Malabar Christian churches despite the strong reservation the RSS has towards Saint Thomas and the Syro-Malabar Christian community, which believes in Saint Thomas tradition.
The senior functionaries of the RSS believe that Saint Thomas never visited and lived in Kerala, and the narrative built around Saint Thomas’ life and death in the southern part of India was politically motivated.
However, RSS functionaries admit that the BJP needs to make inroads into the community in Kerala and the outreach by the party is “political”.
The RSS thinks differently about BJP’s Muslim outreach, which currently revolves around the Pasmanda Muslims. “We have never reached out to caste-specific communities. Our outreach programmes are for all. But as issues keep emerging and as some groups from a community try to initiate a dialogue, we respond. The BJP’s outreach to Pasmanda Muslims in Uttar Pradesh or to the Syro-Malabar Christian community in Kerala is based on the current local-political scenario,” said a senior RSS functionary.
“Pasmanda Muslims are generally oppressed, while the Syro -Malabar Christian community in Kerala is currently facing unprecedented attack from the fundamental forces in the state because of the political situation there. The BJP as a political party has reached out to them and PM Modi has spoken to the community leaders,” added the functionary.
PM Modi has often spoken about the upliftment of the Pasmanda community. The BJP also recently nominated Tariq Mansoor is an MLC. Mansoor belongs to the Pasmanda community and quit as the Aligarh Muslim University Vice-Chancellor following the nomination.
Meanwhile, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat also released the first Urdu translation of Samaveda, saying: “Manzil Ek, Rasste Anek” (Destination of all Indians is the same while the paths are different).
Sunil Ambekar, Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh (national spokesperson) of the RSS, said: “We have always been open to all, we respond to everyone with a positive approach as we are all culturally and traditionally connected.”
Social vs Political
Explaining the difference in approach towards minority outreach, SY Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner of India, said: “The BJP’s outreach to Muslims or Christians is are very political in nature as they expect immediate electoral dividend out of it. The Pasmandas in Uttar Pradesh or Syro-Malabar Christians in Kerala are minority constituencies to them. They want a larger vote share and they will do everything to win the election. But the outreach programmes by the RSS are different in nature. These are more about building social connections, initiating dialogues.”
Quraishi was part of the five-member delegation of Muslim intellectuals that met Mohan Bhagwat on August 22 last year. There have been three such meetings between Muslim intellectuals and the RSS functionaries since then. “Bhagwat ji has been consistent about the broad directions to Sangh members. However, time will tell about BJP’s Pasmanda outreach; whether it is political or there is some positive approach behind it,” he added.
Despite having reservations about the lack of historical evidence to prove the roots of Syro-Malabar Christian communities in Kerala, RSS functionaries say the community is now under attack by “fundamental forces” in the state.
“Christian community leaders are speaking against the fundamental forces in the state because of the prevailing political situation. The BJP is connecting with them and it is the need of the hour. A political party may have electoral interest, but in Kerala, BJP’s outreach is not only political, but a social change too,” said a senior RSS functionary in Kerala.
Meanwhile, the RSS has been increasing its ground connection across states in the Northeast, including Nagaland and Manipur that have a dominant Christian population.
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