RSS on Gyanvapi: Time to put historical facts in the right perspective

On India’s syncretic culture, Ambekar said, “It is true that India is assimilative. People talk about the Ganga-Jamuna culture. But later it should become one. It should become Ganga. Only then can we walk together. I believe there is a responsibility to create public awakening.”

Minister of State Sanjeev Balyan, who was chief guest at the event, said he became emotional when he learnt about a Shivling being found in the mosque complex. “Last week I was in Varanasi when this issue of Gyanvapi was going on. I became emotional. But I became more overwhelmed when a journalist told me that Nandi had been waiting centuries for Lord Shiva. My eyes welled up,” he said.

Incidentally, when the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on November 9, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it a “day to forget any bitterness one may have”. The same day, responding to a question on whether the RSS would now take up the issue of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi and the Shahi Idgah in Mathura, its chief Mohan Bhagwat said: “Because of a historical backdrop, the Sangh got associated with this movement (Ayodhya) as an organisation. It is an exception. Now we will again be associated with human development and this movement will not remain of concern to us.”

Both the BJP and the RSS leadership gave strict directives to their units across the country to avoid any triumphalism over the verdict.

This articulation appears to be shifting now with lawsuits filed not only in the context of the Gyanvapi mosque but also the Shahi Idgah in Mathura.

However, RSS sources maintained that the Sangh has decided not to actively participate in pushing these claims. “What Bhagwatji said, RSS still stands by it. Our job is preparing society and building individuals. But you have to understand that once Hindu society is awakened, it will assert its claims and issues will take their own course,” an RSS leader said.

Sources said the Sangh does not plan to launch a public movement on the lines of Ayodhya for these two sites at the moment. “We get involved when all other avenues to seek justice get exhausted. We got involved in Ayodhya because the secular atmosphere created in the country would not allow for the Babri issue to even be discussed, let alone be remedied. But such a situation is not there in the country anymore. Things are happening on their own and the court cases are moving in a positive direction,” another leader said.