The Supreme Court ruling forbidding political parties from seeking votes on religious lines will not affect the politics of the RSS, former JNUSU vice president and AISA activist Shehla Rashid today argued.
"The judgement will never affect the ruling-class politics or upper-caste Hindu politics that the RSS does as the apex court has already in its 1995 judgement ruled Hinduism as a 'way of life' and not a religion," she said at a panel discussion here.
She claimed both the verdicts are "self-contradictory" and will be "convenient" for the BJP in the upcoming elections.
The SC judgement clearly means you can seek votes in the name of Hindutva ideas and not on marginalisation of Dalits and Muslims, Rashid said.
Recalling Rohit Vemula's suicide, she hit out at media houses for questioning his caste, saying it is the time they should acknowledge its existence.
"I would like the media houses to accept the existence of caste and not to sanitise the newsrooms of caste."
In a counter, Janhawi Ojha, vice president of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad's (ABVP) JNU unit, said even B R Ambedkar appreciated the works of RSS.
"Before sidelining works of RSS as saffronisation, one should acknowledge and understand its work just like India has a country has accommodated several cultures, religions and ideologies," she said.
"I accept there are problems in Hindutva, but the first step to solve the issue is to realise its existence," she added.
The panel discussion was held at ongoing Delhi Book Fair here on the topic "Contemporary Dalit Politics".
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