‘Golwalkar drew lessons from Hitler’s Germany’

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s reference to Hitler during the debate in the Rajya Sabha on Friday prompted CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury to reflect on the BJP’s ideological proximity with the Third Reich.

Thanking Jaitley for bringing up the Third Reich, Yechury quoted, to loud protests from the BJP MPs, from We Or Our Nationhood Defined, a book by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue MS Golwalkar.

“…To keep up the purity of the nation and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of Semitic races – the Jews. National pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by,” said Yechury, quoting from Golwalkar’s book.

Amid protests from the Treasury Benches, some of whom asked Yechury where he was quoting from, he said, “This is from We Or Our Nationhood Defined by MS Golwalkar, published by Bharat Prakashan in 1939. You can find a copy in the [Parliament] library. Or I can lend you one if you want to know what your ideological heads [felt],” Yechury said.

Yechury, in a speech welcomed by the Opposition benches, said the government was conveniently forgetting Articles in the Constitution that spoke of equality, justice and fraternity. He said Jaitley’s selection of articles on cow slaughter and minority rights to score a point was worrisome. He said while the Constitution talks about propagating scientific thought, the Prime Minister himself talks about plastic surgery of Ganesha, the mythological figure.

He said the country’s economy had benefitted only a few people. “100 multi-billionaires of this country have assets that value half of our GDP. At the same time, 90 per cent of the households earn less that ₹10,000 a month,” Yechury added.