India’s Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), has slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government for issuing a special postage stamp and a 100-rupee commemorative coin to mark the 100th anniversary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
In a strong statement from its politburo, the CPI(M) called the move a “grave injury and insult” to India’s Constitution, pointing out that the RSS has never fully accepted it. Party leaders argue this official tribute promotes the RSS’s vision of a Hindutva Rashtra, or Hindu nationalist state.
They took particular issue with the coin’s design, which features a “Bharat Mata” image—a depiction of Mother India as a Hindu goddess—that the RSS has long used to push its sectarian ideas. “It’s highly objectionable for an official coin to carry such symbolism,” the statement said.
The postage stamp drew even sharper criticism. It shows uniformed RSS volunteers marching in the 1963 Republic Day parade, but CPI(M) leaders say this twists history. They claim Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru never invited the RSS to join as a nod to their patriotism during the Indo-China war. Instead, the 1963 event was a massive public gathering of over 100,000 citizens, and any RSS presence was minor and went unreported at the time.
The party accuses the RSS of staying away from India’s freedom struggle and even aiding British “divide and rule” tactics to split the nation’s unity against colonial rule. Releasing these items now, they say, is an attempt to whitewash that history.
CPI(M) also highlighted the RSS’s role in some of India’s worst communal violence, as documented in official inquiry reports. Today, the group and its affiliates keep targeting minorities and marginalized communities with ideas rooted in manuvadi (caste-based) ideologies, the statement added.
By using his office to honor the RSS this way, Prime Minister Modi is hiding these facts and undermining the dignity of his constitutional role, the politburo concluded.
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