The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has launched an ideological assault on China and the communists with the BJP and the government largely choosing silence on the Ladakh standoff.

“Globally, the anti-China, or the anti-Maoist regime in China, sentiments are on the rise. China is shamelessly defending the irresponsible behaviour of hiding or perhaps spreading the Covid-19 pandemic by blaming others,” said the latest editorial in the RSS mouthpiece Organiser, launching a scathing attack on the communist regime in the neighbouring country.

The latest edition of the weekly mouthpiece also has a cover story on the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, aimed at painting the communist regime in China as “murderous” on the anniversary of the brutality on June 4.

The RSS has been running a sustained campaign against China since the Covid crisis unfolded.

Earlier, too, the Organiser had published articles slamming China for the pandemic, claiming that a large number of people had died in Wuhan and blaming the tragedy on communist ideology.

The government and the BJP, however, have been remarkably subdued when it came to the border standoff with China.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh was the first to break the government’s silence on the issue, saying in an interview on Monday that the Chinese had crossed over in “significant numbers”. Soon after, government’s communications wing, the Press Information Bureau, issued a clarification that Rajnath had not spoken of an incursion by China, but “different perceptions” of the border.

As for the party, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, who has a strong RSS connection, recently began speaking on the border face-off, terming it as an effort by the Chinese government to divert attention from its internal problems.

The Right-wing RSS, which views the Left and the communists as its principal ideological enemy, has been going all-out against China not only over the Ladakh standoff but also the pandemic.

In India, the RSS-BJP combine often labels its opponents and dissenting voices as “Maoists” and “urban Naxals”. The latest Organiser editorial stuck to the narrative: “In Bharat also, a few Maoists masquerading as intellectuals justify violence in the name of revolution.”

Referring to the Ladakh standoff, the editorial said China had been trying to use the same “high-handed” approach it had adopted with regard to Taiwan and Hong Kong. “The answer lies in the history of this Maoist party for which power, commanded through the gun, is more important than anything.” it said.

Accusing China of a Covid-19 cover-up, it said: “Communist China has the tradition of covering up the ‘state secrets’ to hide the exact figure of ‘abnormal death’. Communism in all forms is brutal and violent and use workers, students, poor etc merely as instruments of political power.”

The Sangh parivar has also started to believe that the pandemic has come as a God-send opportunity for “Bharat” to emerge as a “visva guru” (world leader).

RSS leaders believe that post-corona, China would be torn apart and “Bharat” would rise as a dominant world power. Editorials in the RSS mouthpiece have started claiming that the pandemic has bared the failure of both the “capitalist” and the “communist” economic models and that it was time for the “Bharatiya” model to dominate the world.

RSS leaders feel that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for an “atmanirbhar” (self-reliant) India had actually been pushed by the Sangh, which has been campaigning for decades for a “swadeshi” economic model opposed to the present form of globalisation.

Frontal organisations of the RSS like the Swadeshi Jagran Manch have been leading movements for years asking people to boycott Chinese goods.

The Organiser editorial also referred to the Hindutva architects M.S. Golwalkar and V.D. Savarkar and even included the names of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Bhim Rao Ambedkar to claim that the legacy of India had always been against China and the communists.

“Fortunately, we have the legacy of many thinkers like Guruji Golwalkar, Veer Savarkar, Vallabhbhai Patel and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, etc, who had warned us against the danger posed by both the Dragon and communism,” the editorial said and urged the government to keep in mind the “murderous ideology” while dealing with China.

“We have to keep these fundamentals of the murderous ideology that guides the ruling dispensation while assessing and engaging with China,” the editorial concluded.