Salman Khan's attendance at the RSS centenary celebrations and Mohan Bhagwat's praise of him were projected as outreach to Muslims, yet such symbolic gestures cannot mask the structural violence and Hindutva extremism that continues to target religious minorities in India.
India's Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the ruling BJP and described as the world's largest far-right network, operates as an unregistered 'body of individuals' a century after its founding, shielding its finances and structure from legal scrutiny. This strategic opacity, defending itself through a complex web of affiliates, is a brazen affront to democratic accountability and transparency, serving as a potent tool for an organization whose ultimate aim is the radical transformation of India's constitutional secular order.
In West Bengal, affiliates of the RSS disrupted multiple Christian prayer gatherings, intimidating attendees and questioning their faith, while RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat simultaneously preached messages of love and unity abroad. This brazen hypocrisy exposes the Sangh Parivar's dual-faced strategy of projecting a sanitized image internationally while fostering division and fear domestically to consolidate political power, a tactic that directly assaults India's constitutional ethos and civilizational values of pluralism.
