Is Mohan Bhagwat to Hinduism what Pope is to Christianity?

On Tuesday, the RSS Sarsanghachalak delivered his Vijaya Dashami speech meant for swayamsewaks. This was the 91st Vijaya Dashami address made by a Sarsanghachalak and the third to be telecast live by Doordarshan. What exactly is the status of the Sangh pramukh to be given the country’s official communication platform to televise his views? I remember questioning the first live coverage of Mohan Bhagwat’s address in 2014 and faced an angry bout of whataboutery asking me if I had questioned Pope’s address when it was covered live during the Pontiff’s visit in 1999. Is Mohan Bhagwat to Hinduism what Pope is to Christianity? Does he represent our Sanatan Dharma? Where does it leave our learned Shankaracharyas? If Mohan Bhagwat seeks to reach out to his swayamsewaks across the world, why is the state helping him do that? Why can his speech not be uploaded on YouTube? Why should the tax payers’ money be wasted on live streaming the speech of a man who doesn’t represent even one per cent of the population of this country? Mohan Bhagwat’s address was the usual fluffy and vague package of this, that and everything in a language of smoke and mirrors which only swayamsewaks can understand. He invoked Acharya Abhinavgupta, a 10th century mystic from Kashmir, whose Tantraloka enumerates the spiritual and temporal aspects of Kashmir Shaivism. Including Abhinavgupta in the RSS's pantheon has a political logic behind it. The idea is to reclaim the Hindutva of Kashmir, although Buddhism was the major influence on the thought of Abhinavgupta. By invoking Abhinavgupta, Mohan Bhagwat was attempting to isolate the Muslim-dominated valley from the rest of Kashmir. He, like many Right-wingers blinded by ignorant fury, refuses to see the fact that before Mehbooba Mufti took charge of the BJP-PDP coalition Government, the State of Jammu & Kashmir had almost got used to peace. Such talk is taking us to a stage where Kashmir may be a part of India but Kashmiris will not. He then spoke about Ramanujacharya. Not about the scholarly works of the 11th century saint, and definitely not about him converting a Jain ruler to Hinduism, but carefully chose the legend of the Utsava Murti at the Tiru Cheluva Narayana Temple. Ramanuja was in Melukote, escaping the wrath of the anti-Vaishnavite Kullotunga Chola ruler. Lord Vishnu appeared in his dreams asking him to retrieve the Utsava Murti of the Tiru Cheluva Temple stolen by invading Mughals. He traveled to Delhi to request the ‘Sultan’ to return the deity. The Sultan’s daughter could not bear separation from the idol and followed Ramanuja to Melukote and, on reaching the temple, she merged into the idol. Ramanuja then installed her idol at the feet of Tiru Cheluva Narayana. By invoking this legend of Bibi Nachiyar, Mohan Bhagwat reinforces the advice often given to Indian Muslims by Hindutva elements – if you merge your identity in ours, we will grant you acceptance. The RSS keeps making attempts to co-opt heroes of the Sikh pantheon. Sikhs fiercely resist these attempts. From claims that Guru Gobind Singh sent his army to liberate the Ram Janmabhumi to putting Hindu gods in gurudwaras and putting Guru Granth Sahib in temples, the RSS has also tried its best to impose the Vikrami Samvat on Sikhs. The Anand Marriage Act, the Nanakshahi calendar, etc, are examples of Sikh resistance to such attempts. Controlled by Chitpavan Brahmins, the RSS has never succeeded in opening its arms to Dalits. The tragic events at Una and elsewhere have further distanced Dalits from the RSS. The mention of Gulabrao Maharaj is yet another attempt at wooing Dalits, albeit through lip service. A kunbi by caste, Gulabrao Maharaj was near-blind at birth. Despite these shortcomings, he became a scholar of Vedas. Gulabrao championed Swadeshi and that’s another reason for Mohan Bhagwat to mention him in the Vijaya Dashami address, apart from targeting Patidars. Mohan Bhagwat speaks of swayamsewaks doing a survey of discrimination in Madhya Bharat and tries to undo the damage of his own utterances against reservations by saying that "swayamsewaks have also started helping our Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe brethren to claim the benefits guaranteed to them under the Constitution." Despite their best efforts, leaders of the RSS have not been able to even pay lip service to the concept of ‘Samata’. They stop short at ‘Samarasta’. Mohan Bhagwat shows his clear disdain towards dissent by labelling it as "dirty tricks... fomenting trouble over untoward incidents, or in the name of non-existent issues… with the idea of maligning the Government, administration and the benign forces like the RSS…" If he was referring to the Dadri lynching, would he have anything in defence of Union Minister Mahesh Sharma visiting the family of Akhlaq’s alleged killer who died of kidney failure in custody and whose body was draped with the Tricolour? Incidentally, Akhlaq’s son works with the Indian Air Force. And if he was referring to the incidents against Dalits where they were thrashed for skinning a dead cow, he undid that by immediately hailing the work of gau sevaks. From an organisation that made a solemn promise not to indulge in politics, Mohan Bhagwat has brought the RSS to a point where the organisation not only comments upon but also dictates several aspects of governance. His comments on foreign policy and education policy are a case in point. And since our media refuses to question these anomalies, the RSS is wantonly sneaking its way to becoming a legitimate voice in day to day governance. Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs and views of ABP News Network Pvt Ltd.