 Hello, welcome to NewsClip. Recently Tamil Nadu Polis denied permission for the RSS to carry out route marches at 51 locations in Tamil Nadu on October 2nd. This comes after the Madras High Court granted the RSS permission to go ahead with the march. The Polis have said that the law and order situation prevailing in the wake of the ban of the popular friend of India was not conducive to hold these marches. What does this mean? Why does the RSS want to hold in marches in so many places? And what is the DMP government trying to say by denying permission to them? To talk about all this, we have with us senior journalist R.K. Radha Krishnan with us. Hello, sir. Thanks a lot for joining us. Sir, could you please tell us, why does the RSS want to hold marches in so many places on Gandhi Jayanthi? See, this is part of the larger scheme of things. This cannot be seen as a one-off kind of thing at all. If you look at how the Sangh Parivar has been trying to come into Tamil Nadu, you will see that the first thing that they did is to bring the Kinesh Chaturthi puja into Tamil Nadu and have this huge and long drawn out processions which Tamils are not used to. It is not part of Tamil culture. We have not been taking this huge processions for Vinaikas at all. Of course, we do take it to the Nepal Pond or something and put the Vinaikas there. It has not been these huge structures that we have been doing. Now, over the years, what has happened to that particular kind of celebration which really involves migrants and all those people who get their daily wages out of this is that it becomes a police-regulated, police-controlled and police-directed kind of celebration that that complete opportunity is gone to kind of create a permanent trouble. Because the narrative has to be Hindu Katre mein hai. Hindu is always in danger. So, unless you have that narrative, unless you send that narrative, it is impossible for the Sangh Pariva to grow in any place. So, that is how the Sangh Pariva grew out of Dharat Yatra. You see the seeds going up in Lok Sabha from 2 in 1984 to 88 or 89 in 1989. That is the framework. So, after that, what happened is BJP has been trying to take up what is called Hindu issues. A girl in a Christian convent was being mistreated, ill-treated in Dhanjavur and all of that. That became a huge issue. And then when they knew that it will not cut any ice, they dropped it. Then they went to the next girl. Then they went to a third person. I mean, this has been happening. The BJP has been trying to do this. At the same time, we see that the other part of this, say, Vnayacharya, the processions also have failed. Now, they are bringing in a new element into the picture. Of course, there will be the constant pressure with taking up Hindu issues across Tamil Nadu, claiming that these are all Hindu issues. But at another level, they want to show their power. They want to show that in these 50 cities or towns, we are going to march through a particular area where a particular community resides to tell you that these are all places where these guys are in a majority. And these places, you have to be very fearful of them. Their population is going to overwhelm us. So, this is part of a pattern. This is part of a larger goal to bring this concept of Hindu kathre mehe into Tamil Nadu and bring Hindus together from Dalits to the Brahmins and to make sure that they all vote for the BJP. Well, sir, BJP is a political party and it has its own agenda. But why does the RSS want to make India grow in Tamil Nadu and grow here? Exactly. That's a very good question. Now, RSS claims it's a cultural organization, but a cultural organization like, for instance, Naradagana Subway is a cultural organization. There is no politics attached to it. We can say that all these organizations in Chennai which promote music and arts and all of that might have a cast angle to it. That's the biggest criticism against these organizations. But at the same time, RSS also says that it is going to create a Hindu Rashtra. And that Hindu Rashtra becomes a political objective. You claim you are a cultural organization. How can a cultural organization have a political objective? How do you achieve that political objective? So the lie is that it is a cultural organization. The fact is that it wants to create this complete Hindu Rashtra, this political aim. To achieve that political aim, it has to use whatever powers that it has with it, which is the Sangh Parivaar's outfit, which is the BHP, which can be the RSS, it can be the BJP, it can be the AVP, any of these organizations, anything that comes in handy. So the ultimate aim is by the year 2025, the 100th year of existence of RSS of coming to its existence, it wants to create a Hindu India. It wants to create a Hindu India. That's the political goal. Okay, but still can the Tamil Nadu government not give permission? Can they deny permission if they're asking for marches? And what are the DMK trying to do by not giving permission, especially when the high court itself has given an order? See, the thing is that in a democracy, I think each pillar of democracy should understand what its powers are and act accordingly. If that does not happen, if suddenly I am the media, so today I decided, okay, from today I want to operate out of the secretariat. It is not going to work. It's not the right way to go about protecting and preserving and promoting democracy. Why are we a democracy? We are a democracy to achieve the greatest possible good to the greatest number of people in the shortest possible time. That is what Gandhiji wanted to do when India achieved independence. So unless the judiciary realizes, unless the administration realizes, unless the legislative body realizes extent of powers, we had a PH Pandian who claimed a speaker of the Tamil Nadu assembly saying that he had sky high powers. Nobody has sky high powers. Every power has defined, every power has to be exercised with caution. Every power should not infringe on the right of another institution or body of democracy. What is happening here is that the court has come into a domain of administration and is trying to tell the government, Puthicherry has given permission. Why can't you give permission? Puthicherry is a place with a few lack of people. I mean, a lot of the issue cannot get really out of hand in a place which has only those many people and the geography and topography itself is so small. But Tamil Nadu, if you're asking for permission in 50 cities and the police is telling that only now the PFI has been banned and there can be repercussions because of that. And only now, this is the first time that the RSS is going to hold it, which is not correct in the sense that October 2 is the birthday of Gandhi Jainri, the day Gandhi was born. And we all know that Nathuram Ghootsay himself and Gopal Ghootsay have repeatedly said that they were members of the RSS. Though RSS denies it like all its pracharaks do, when any criminal activity happens, including the IOJ accident, they all keep denying it. But the fact happens to be that you cannot have a judiciary impinging on an administrative issue. There's an administrative issue that has to be handled by the administration. That power resides with the cabinet at worst. That is, if you escalate and escalate, finally, it has to be with the cabinet. It does not lie with the judiciary. So this is also not the first time that RSS is not given permission for marches in Tamil Nadu, right? So still about 2017, both the Jaylal Thalaiyad government and Katharani Thalaiyad governments have not given them permission. What is the history behind this? See, in 2017, it was O. Pandit Srivam who gave permission for an RSS route march in Chennai and that he did for personal gains. He did not have the interest of the state in mind. He did not have the interest of the ADMT in mind. He didn't have the Dravidian ethos in mind. He was just another guy occupying a chair which he had no business occupying and unfortunately Jaylata trusted him and that was the reason. He was a guy who will sell out to the highest bidder. I mean, that is my version of my impression of this person. Before that, it took, I think 17 years or so before there was an instance where RSS was given permission. But ever since Karnanthi and Jaylata have come into power, they've realized that the kind of sectarian violence that can happen because of an RSS route march and the manner in which these route marches are held. So immediately after the problems in Coimbatore, when the pipe bomb issues happened in Coimbatore and they kept saying that Advani's life was endangered because of this and all of that, that opportunity afforded Karnanthi a chance to actually ban any of the Israelis. In fact, Tamil Nadu is an extremely oppressive police state in one way. If you look at it because none of us can hold any agitations anywhere as we please. The government will give you permission or the police will give you permission. You have to ask for permission even for a hall meeting and only once the permission is accorded can you actually have a hall meeting. But I think in the interests of the state and keeping in view of our own history starting with Prabhakaran and the shootouts in Chulai Madurai, Adityanagar and other places, maybe for a period of time it is okay to have this kind of restrictions and these kind of restrictions also mean that organizations like the RSS cannot appropriate public property and cannot go around brandishing swords and guns and all that as they've done in some other places in the country. So we've been hearing that RSS has been growing in Tamil Nadu that their shakas have gone up to 600 in the recent past. So what does it imply for a state like Tamil Nadu? Where are we heading? Obviously, if you have a lot of money, there will be people coming to you and it's easy to mislead young people. In fact, when I was in college, I studied in Kerala, I remember that the ABVP CHAPS came to me and told me that they were an independent organization. They have no connection with any political party whatsoever. So I went back to my folks and I inquired and my brother told me, no, ABVP is the student wing of the BJP. It is like that. RSS will say that it stands for cultural nationalism and it wants culture preserved and whatnot and the Hindus are being spoken of in a derogatory manner and you have to stand up and all that. So this might cut eyes with some people for some amount of time, but the lies cannot go on. Remember this is an organization which went to the IT department and said that it is a charity and I mean, Yejin Nurani has recounted it very well in the book RSS Menace to India and you should see the kind of subterfuge that they employed to stay out of paying taxes and to try and hoodwing the IT department. In one place, they say they are a cultural organization. In another place, they are a charity organization, but when it matters, in front of, I mean, they give completely different information to two completely different agencies just to avoid coming into the radar and doing things as per the law that is provided in this country. So the 600 is not a huge number if you ask me. Kerala has 7000 Shakas and in Kerala, we also see orphanages in other places being taken over by the RSS and being run by the RSS. So it's literally snatching them at the cradle and making sure that they all remain true to the communal agenda of the RSS. We have still not reached there, but the kind of money that the BJP has now and the kind of clout that RSS enjoys in this country, unless the Dravidian parties actually make a huge push against this and start a propaganda war saying that Hindu is not in danger, the oppressed communities are in danger, unless that is fine. This finally is a class divide. It has nothing to do with the caste that we belong to. It has nothing to do with who you are at any point of time and Hindu, certainly it's not in danger in India. Thank you.