Sanjay K. Jha 
Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi today said Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s contention that India did not get real freedom in 1947 was treason and somebody making such an irresponsible statement would have been prosecuted in any other country.
While many RSS-BJP leaders and supporters nurture such misgivings about the freedom movement and rightly never get prosecuted in the liberal democracy that our great freedom fighters envisaged, Bhagwat’s argument that the real freedom came on the day Ram temple in Ayodhya was consecrated needs to be seriously contested.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the new Congress headquarters, Gandhi said:
“I think it is quite symbolic that yesterday, the chief of RSS [Mohan Bhagwat] said that India never achieved Independence in 1947. He said that true Independence in India was achieved when the Ram mandir was built. He said that the constitution was not the symbol of our freedom. Mohan Bhagwat had the audacity to inform the nation every two or three days what he thinks about independence movement, what he thinks about the constitution. In fact, what he said yesterday is treason. Because it is stating that the constitution is invalid, it is stating that everything – the fight against the British was invalid, and he has the audacity to say this publicly. In any other country, he would be arrested and tried. That is a fact. To say that India did not get Independence in 1947 is an insult to every single Indian person. And it’s about time we stop listening to this nonsense.”
What Bhagwat said a few days ago is that India indeed got political independence in 1947 and the real freedom came with the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. He said temples were destroyed to kill India’s self-esteem and that was restored with the “Pran Pratrishtha” of the Ram temple.
While the minions have often said India got real freedom in 2014 when Narendra Modi became the prime minister, critics dismissed that claim as rhetorical nonsense; the latest to sing this tune was actress Kangana Ranaut whose intellectual bankruptcy is not hidden from anybody. But the RSS chief is linking freedom to religion, giving an entirely new twist to the needless discourse that benefits none.
No country derides its own freedom struggle and forefathers who sacrificed their lives for the future generations. But this bogus discourse, that real freedom was achieved in 2014, is now immersed in the emotions generated by religious irrationality.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.
While it is tragic that the RSS-BJP can’t rise above bigotry and sectarianism, much like Islamic fundamentalists and fascists, even while discussing nationalism and nationhood, such a discourse offers concrete proof about their lack of faith in the constitutional principles of equality and fraternity. The RSS clearly doesn’t understand that nationalism isn’t merely about religiosity.
What can be more ludicrous than the belief that Indian nationalism was waiting for its true definition till a temple is constructed in Ayodhya? The presumption that Indian nation-state can’t be conceptualised without a temple at the birthplace of Lord Ram – even as hundreds of grand temples exist in all parts of the country – betrays poor understanding of both politics and nationalism, as well as religion.
A pertinent question arises – Was it possible to celebrate India’s sovereignty with the building of Ram temple if India had not achieved freedom in 1947? What was more critical in the eyes of the RSS – end of colonial rule or construction of a temple? The answer to these questions will conclusively prove how the RSS-BJP undermined India’s freedom struggle and insulted the great souls who sacrificed everything for the future of the nation.
Nationalism grounded in religion is the language spoken by ISIS and Boko Haram. The RSS chief is justifying the fanaticism of Muhammad Ali Jinnah who insisted on division of India on the basic of religion. Is Bhagwat suggesting the demand for Khalistan, by Sikh fundamentalists, justified? If religion is everything, can’t an atheist have a nation?
Also read: An Open Letter to RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat, Who Has Recently Spoken About Communal Harmony
Was B.R. Ambedkar, who changed his religion from Hinduism to Buddhism, any lesser Indian? Was Jawaharlal Nehru, who spent years in prison during the freedom struggle, had smaller self-esteem than Modi who built the Ram temple? Does Bhagwat believe those who do not believe in Hinduism, or don’t worship Ram, cannot wholly develop an Indian consciousness? Isn’t it just another way of saying what V.D. Savarkar suggested – that Muslims, Christians and other non-Hindus cannot have a rightful place in Hindustan?
It is clear that the RSS intends to recast nationalism in a way that is not in consonance with the constitutional spirit and Bhagwat’s description of the consecration day as the real Independence day is an irrefutable evidence of that sinister plan. While the consecration ceremony happened on January 22 in 2024 in an under construction temple amidst politico-religious controversies because the date was chosen with the intent of influencing the parliamentary election, the larger questions revolve around the hidden agenda of changing the constitution.
The Opposition parties kicked up a ruckus over this threat and the Modi government was restricted to 240, below the majority mark, compelling the BJP to reaffirm its faith in the constitution. But Bhagwat has now reignited the debate, triggering questions about the transformation of constitutional democracy into a theocratic state. Violating the sanctity of Independence day is indeed a crime and Gandhi is not off the mark in saying that Bhagwat could have been prosecuted in any other country.
Every Indian nationalist feels to be an integral part of the legacy of the freedom struggle. It is almost impossible to visualise ourselves as a citizen without a sense of pride in our freedom fighters – from Bhagat Singh to Mahatma Gandhi. This consciousness never felt the absence of a temple in Ayodhya in the first five-six decades after Independence. What constituted the core a free nation was rights and empowerment, equality and justice, not religious dominance or exclusion.
The slogan was gareebi-hatao (remove poverty), not mandir banao (build temple). Can Bhagwat recall one instance where any rightwing ideologue said at any national or international platform that India’s nationhood is deficient because there is no temple at Ram’s birthplace? The avowed goal was to create an Indian above caste, community, linguistic and regional identities. Even now, Modi says India-first. Not Hindu-first. Gandhi’s outrage at Bhagwat’s wily attempt to distort the Indian identity is fully justified.
Also read: Full Text | Constitution, Majority, BJP: What an RSS Chief Told Karan Thapar Decades Ago
The BJP, instead of clarifying its position on RSS chief’s observation on India’s Independence, has indulged in a quibble over Rahul’s claim that the Opposition parties are fighting the Indian state, not a political party. It is strange that the BJP has woken up today because Gandhi has been saying this since 2019, insisting that the Modi government had captured all the key democratic institutions and there was no level-playing field for a political contest now.
Gandhi has said countless times that the Opposition parties have to fight the might of the Indian state, pointing to the combined onslaught of police, Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), bureaucracy, judiciary, Election Commission (EC) and the media. The BJP has conveniently forgotten the difference between Indian nation and Indian state to project the Congress leader as anti-national.
Was the BJP anti-national when it fought the might of the government machinery when Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency? Fighting state power is people’s right and that’s nothing to do with the nation. But undermining the freedom struggle and national independence is unseemly.
Sanjay K. Jha is a political commentator.