RSS has over 40 branches across the world, especially in English speaking countries, like the US, Canada, UK, Australia. In the US alone, in 2017, there were 5700 registered members of the HSS. Online webinar organised by ASPAIRE
Press release Washington
The Alliance to Save and Protect America from Infiltration by Religious Extremists (ASPAIRE) held the first of a series of discussions on “Resisting the Assaults on Democracy”, with prominent activists, on February 7. Speakers included: former Journalist Kannan Srinivasan,
who has written on fascism, money laundering and the Hindu Mahasabha among others,
Nadia Ahmed, activist and Professor of Law, Barry University, Florida and a DNC delegate
Shabnam Hashmi, veteran social activist and human rights campaigner, Delhi, and ColinGonsalves, Indian Supreme Court lawyer and human rights leader, Delhi.
The online event was moderated by Dr. Shaik Ubaid of ASPAIRE.
ASPAIRE webinars promise to be action oriented, with information on how to mobilize local inter-faith and human rights groups, how to inform the local media, how to lobby the members of the congress, on the growing menace of the Hindutva supremacy in the US.
Dr Shaik Ubaid :
The American democracy has been a work in progress. Initially only the landowners could vote, gradually other white men voted, then women voted, followed by the black community, and finally all American citizens. Gradual progress was made despite the hiccups. It is only recently that systematic attempts to undermine democracy have been made.
Liberal democracy around the world is on the retreat, including in Western Europe where it was considered to be quite strong.
In the Indian context, democracy has been under assault even before it became a republic by the undermining efforts of the RSS, an organization formed much before independence with the Nazis as their idols.
It is only due to the efforts of the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who chose to tread the democratic path, despite it being against what was the political trend back then and B. R. Ambedkar, who drafted the robust constitution. RSS worked diligently to infiltrate the states and the education departments over the decades. But when its political wing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, the assault on democracy has been gathering strength day by day.
ASPAIRE was formed to protect against the infiltration of religious extremists in American democracy and the American rule of law. American democracy was paying attention to home grown terrorists, to the ones from Muslim countries, the Al Qaeda and ISIS, as also the white supremacists. But it has not been paying attention to the huge deluge of Hindu extremists from India, using Gandhi’s name whom RSS members killed.
Now so emboldened that they are fighting elections to the highest body, the US congress and to the local bodies in the many states.
ASPAIRE was created to educate Americans, connect with the democratic and pluralist forces around the world and to contain and fight off this international menace, posed by Hindutva forces.
Kannan Srinivasan
Fascist history is well documented, especially European fascism and a clear connection between European fascism and Indian fascism has been established in an article published by the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW).
The American democracy has inspired India. US democracy has a predatory jurisdiction and does not see itself as an equal to any international state system. It considers it as its right to protect its interests, not rights.
But domestically equal rights had to be ratified in state after state, a complicated effort.
For African Americans it has been such a long fight for rights, just as it has been for gays, for Muslims and other minorities, fighting for what they assumed was theirs.
Carrying weapons has become such a democratic right too.
The fight that we are fighting is not for the pre Trump era, but for several rights.
American revolution itself was the outcome of a judgement against slavery in England. It stated that slaves are human beings not property. Though it did not apply to British colonies like Jamaica, there was still apprehension that it will spread in America.
The danger of not recognizing the growing fascism in India, because of India’s presentation as a peace loving civilization is immense, when it has become the dominant ideology now. This makes American politicians like Raja Krishnamurthi and Tulsi Gabbard, funded by the Hindutva ideology, a serious threat. This ideology has prevailed since the 1920’s and needs to be publicized.
Nadia Ahmed :
The majoritarian Hindutva ideology has profoundly shaped Indian thinking and politics and also has a bearing on how the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has been projected.
When India got its Independence, the leaders then embraced a pluralist democracy with a secular diversity,
But the goal of the RSS has been to shape politics according to only the majority faith, with a steady assault on minority rights, in politics and in Bollywood.
RSS garnered international attention, when Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke about the RSS in the United Nations, prompting one of the office bearers of RSS to state that RSS is only for India. And that being angry with RSS is being angry with India, prompting questions if the RSS was synonymous with India then?
RSS has over 40 branches across the world, especially in English speaking countries, like the US, Canada, UK, Australia. In the US alone, in 2017, there were 5700 registered members of the HSS.
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The anticipated growth with an international pool of RSS volunteers is worrying. And they have been able to grow because of the food banks they provide, the flood relief programs they undertake, education programs for kids, all of which have a high level of family involvement. None of these mask the underlying thought of the RSS though.
Shabnam Hashmi :
I am entering into my 40th year of activism, resisting the assault on democracy, with every small and big movement over the years.
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Resistance at the farmers protests where millions have now decided to voice their disapproval, against the so called agriculture ‘reform’ bills, has been very creative. For instance, when the government decided to put up beds of nails, to stop tractors from entering protest sites, the farmers were told to bring mud from the villages, which were then laid on these beds. And a flower was planted on every nail.
In my 40 years, where I have seen all kinds of protest, I have not seen one like this, which has now become one of the largest in the world. The kind of music that has come out of the movement is quite something. These are now being played in marriages and festivals.
This resistance has given India a lot of hope. For the first time in the last six seven years, we believe that this government can be defeated. After protests during the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR), were forcibly stopped, many targeted and put in jail on false charges, the situation appeared bleak.
Infiltration of the RSS has been ignored by governments in the US and Canada. “Making me wonder if they were being naive or because it was just convenient? While India may seem like a peaceful country, it is also seen as a large market. It is only now that the situation in the country has become violent, making it difficult to invest in India, that there is a new found sensitivity to the issue. In my trips across US, we have met politicians and government officials in the US and Europe, informing them that RSS has a large terror network and that it will explode in their countries too,
The Democracy index in the country has now plunged to 53, from 27, just a couple of years ago and the press freedom is now at a pathetic 158, out of 180.
This is an outright fascist government, though elected through democratic process. As soon as they came to power they immediately started undermining and dismantling institutions one by one, including the media and the judiciary.
Though Judge Brijgopal Loya from Maharashtra, in the midst of hearing cases against the present Home Minister Amit Shah died under mysterious circumstances, the supreme court refused a judicial inquiry, despite it being a common procedure.
BJP has made it an established practise to simply buy up MLA’s, wherever they lose elections to seize power in that state. In West Bengal, where elections are round the corner, they have started buying up sitting MLAs.
In these challenging times, when activists and journalists are being harassed and arrested for doing their work, it is important to keep energies high and hope alive and collaborate efforts, nationally and internationally, since it is difficult for smaller organizations to withstand the assault.
Colin Gonsalves :
Till a couple of years ago, if the prosecution wished to keep someone in jail, after the charge sheet was filed, and investigation was done, prosecution could do so, after they produced documents which are legally admissible in court during trial. However now the supreme court has set a dangerous precedent during the Bhima Koregaon trial by ruling that even if the prosecution/police does not have legally admissible evidence, it can still use those documents, and the court while refusing bail can rely on those documents to deny bail.
As a result of this judgement many young and old activists are being caught and incarcerated. The police know that they do not have enough evidence to get a conviction, but their only concern is to keep the victim in jail for as long as possible, five years at an estimate, without any evidence.
Sedition is not even a law anymore in most civilised countries and yet several journalists and Right to Information (RTI) activists have either been arrested with charges of sedition to deny bail or killed. Sedition is akin to waging war and is a very serious charge, carrying long sentences, Earlier even if you shouted Khalistan Zindabad or Azadi in Kashmir, but did not follow it with any action, it was not considered as sedition.
But today, even a cartoon against the state can lead to sedition charges against you. A case in point is that of the journalist who was denied bail for a year, just for saying FO to a chief minister in sheer frustration.
On the other hand, a case against BJP leaders caught on camera giving provocative speeches, leading to riots in Delhi, has not even come up for hearing yet.
We had a wonderful judiciary, independent of the government. We are still a long way from caving in completely but the rapid pace at which it is caving in, should worry every citizen. And every democracy.
This is a government of lies, where everyday we are told that we will soon be a five trillion economy, when we have not seen the kind of abject hunger, malnutrition deaths, sheer desperation not just among migrant workers, but also the middle class who have lost jobs in large numbers and are ashamed of their conditions.
Several essential welfare schemes like the midday meal scheme which was pitiable but still gave something to millions of starving children, and the meagre subsistence given to young pregnant mothers to curb infant mortality was all stopped last year under the pretext of covid and not resumed yet, when even the malls and gyms have started opening.
This is the kind of leadership one sees in Kalyug..when society descends in the dark, criminals rule the country and the forces which fight the criminality are in jail.
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