Politicians are not the only species who have mastered the dark art of insincere talk. As the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, Mohan Bhagwat, demonstrated during his speech on the occasion of Dussehra, ideologues can be equally formidable exponents of this art. One of Mr Bhagwat’s contentions was that mischievous elements indulge in scaremongering so as to project the image of the RSS and the Hindu rashtra being adversarial towards minorities. The truth is that prevailing ground realities confirm this serious charge repeatedly. The political ascendancy of the Bharatiya Janata Party has coincided with a worrying rise in violence and discrimination against India’s minorities, especially Muslims. In fact, Mr Bhagwat’s attempt to whitewash the stains almost coincided with two similar dispiriting incidents. In Karnataka, a Hindu procession barged into a madrasa and performed rituals while in Gujarat and some other parts of India, there were reports of Hindutva vigilantes preventing Muslims from participating in garba events under the bogey of love jihad. These are but two examples of the everydayness of the persecution of minorities. Astoundingly, Mr Bhagwat did his bit to add to the scaremongering by referring to the need to ‘correct’ religion-based imbalances in population, a clear reference to the RSS’s faulty rhetoric of unchecked population growth among Muslims, even though empirical data suggest otherwise. Figures suggest that the decline in population growth among Muslims has been higher than that of Hindus in the last two decades; fertility rates, the National Family Health Survey has indicated, are falling too.

There is no need to add fuel to the fire. The collective ‘duty’ — the prime minister’s favourite word — should instead be to douse the flames. Mr Bhagwat must send an unambiguous message to his ideological brethren about the need to undo the damage that is being done to the republic’s body politic. The problem is that he and his organisation remain wedded to an ideology that is inherently divisive and inimical to India’s pluralist ethos. Assurances certifying the safety of minorities would continue to ring hollow as long as they continue to face the brunt of a majoritarian surge.