HAVING prospered abroad as an unbridled organisation flaunting different names and profiles for decades, the RSS seems to be in trouble in western cities and townships where unusual rage is surfacing at its documented hatred of Muslims and Christians. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s visit to the US and Canada has come at a fraught time in the organisation’s global and domestic trajectory.
The timing of this change in attitude coincides with a youth movement questioning the ideological fundamentals of the Modi government at home and decline of Israel as a morally tenable entity in the comity of nations. Israel’s fondness for India’s right-wing Hindu establishment has collaterally damaged India’s reputation as an old comrade in much of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Not quite flattering also is the reality of Pakistan’s rise as a widely wooed global partner with India painting itself into a diplomatic corner. When a frustrated Donald Trump yelled at Israel for becoming friendless and hated by everyone, Benjamin Netanyahu smiled back, saying he still had India for a friend. The backhanded compliment isn’t lost on the world at large.
Where Pakistan is headed, India once claimed the high ground — the reliable friend ready to help untangle strategic and diplomatic knots world leaders needed to fix urgently. There was a time when leaders sought out India to intervene as an honest broker to wind down the traumatic Korean conflict, and they remained grateful that Nehru stepped in. There was a time when Indira Gandhi was urged by the Non-Aligned Movement to broker peace in the lacerating Iran-Iraq war. She dispatched senior diplomat Romesh Bhandari to placate the warring arch-foes as only a trusted Indian envoy could. And though the war eventually ended when a US warship shot down an Iranian Airbus packed with Dubai shoppers, India’s helping hand continued to be valued in the entire region.
