AAP warns against ‘selective’ teaching of RSS in Delhi schools

AAP supports teaching RSS history in Delhi schools but demands a complete narrative, criticizing selective glorification and urging inclusion of its controversial past.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday welcomed the BJP government’s decision to include the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the curriculum of Delhi schools but demanded that the “complete and unfiltered history” of the organisation be taught rather than a “selective” version.

AAP warns against ‘selective’ teaching of RSS in Delhi schools

AAP’s Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj said his party was not opposed to students learning about the RSS but insisted that difficult chapters from its past should not be ignored. “It is fine to teach about any institution that is part of history, just as Akbar, Ashoka, Nadir Shah, Hitler or Mahatma Gandhi are taught. But the truth should be told, not false glorification,” he said.

On Tuesday, education minister Ashish Sood had said that RSS’ history along with other organisations involved in nation-building will be taught in Delhi government schools as part of the newly-introduced Rashtraneeti course.

Bharadwaj argued that the RSS had not contributed to the freedom struggle, citing their opposition to the Quit India Movement in 1942 and their appeals to Hindus to join the British Army during World War II. He reminded that Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse was associated with both organisations and asked whether students would also be taught about the Hindu Mahasabha’s coalition governments with the Muslim League in Bengal, Sindh and the North West Frontier Province, or about the RSS’s refusal for decades to hoist the national flag at its headquarters.

While acknowledging the RSS’s social work through shakhas, Bharadwaj said its political history must also be taught.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh added to the criticism on the RSS centenary, asking why the organisation has never appointed a Dalit, backward caste, tribal or woman as its chief. Calling the RSS “anti-Constitution” and opposed to reservations, he warned against its “regressive character.”

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor dismissed the remarks, saying the RSS had a spotless legacy of service and accusing Bharadwaj of stirring controversies to exploit religious sentiments. “It would be better if Saurabh Bhardwaj stops creating unnecessary controversies before every religious festival, and instead apologises for manipulating Hindu sentiments during his tenure by using religious events,” he said.