One of the key aspects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of our independence was his celebration of the constitution, the 75th anniversary of which is being marked this year.While doing so, however, he gratuitously referred to the centenary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which never played any role in the freedom struggle. If anything, it supported British rule. In defence of not joining the Mahatma Gandhi led independence movement. M.S. Golwalkar, then chief ideologue of the RSS, resorted to convoluted logic. In Bunch of Thoughts, he wrote: “Territorial nationalism implies that the Indian nation is formed of all those people who reside in this land…. An effort was consistently made to look upon Hindus, Muslims, Christians as ‘nationals’ and forge them into an integrated force against the foreign rule.”Apart from standing against the freedom struggle, the RSS, on 14th August 1947 refused to accept the national flag adopted by the Constituent Assembly and scathingly declared, “”The so-called National Flag would never be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil and a flag having three colours will produce a bad psychological effect.” It was only much later that it accepted the tiranga. It is tragic that Modi glorified the RSS on the occasion of independence day despite its adversarial role against the freedom struggle and national flag.While Modi never mentioned the RSS in earlier I-Day speeches, he presumably did so today in an effort to placate the Sangh – with which, as reported, he has a difficult relationship.RSS’s sustained opposition to the Constitution“When we talk about democracy, independent India, then our constitution is the best lighthouse for us, our centre of inspiration,” said Modi. Not for everyone, he should have added. It is well documented, for example, that the RSS opposed the constitution tooth and nail on November 30, 1949, four days after it was adopted by the Constituent Assembly. RSS mouthpiece Organiser wrote on November 30 that there was nothing ‘Bharatiya’ in the constitution.While incorporating many aspects of the “British, American, Canadian, Swiss and sundry other constitutions”, said the RSS about the framers of the constitution, they did not find any worth in the “laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti”, which “excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity”.That adversarial disposition of the RSS against the constitution continued unabated for decades On the occasion of the constitution’s 50th anniversary in 2000-2001, K Sudarshan, former RSS sarsanghchalak or chief, told Karan Thapar that the Indian constitution is alien to the Indian ethos and culture. When Thapar asked him,“And you are not feeling bound today by a constitution that was created 50 years ago”, he stressed that “… it needs an utter review. It must be reviewed completely.”K.R .Narayanan saved the constitutionAround 1999-2000, when KR Narayanan was president of India, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who took pride in being a swayamsevak, repeatedly talked about a review of the constitution.In his speech delivered on the golden jubilee of the constitution on January 27, 2000, Narayanan sharply countered Vajpayee and said, “Today when there is so much talk about revising the constitution or even writing a new constitution, we have to consider whether it is the constitution that has failed us or whether it is we who have failed the constitution”.Those thoughtful utterances by Narayanan forced Vajpayee not to review the constitution but only its “working” – by appointing a commission headed by Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah.People in defence of the constitutionNow in 2025, when its 75th anniversary is celebrated, the issue of saving the constitution has become an electoral issue and people have come forward to defend and protect it.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi often holds up a copy of the constitution in public meetings across the country and sensitises people about the danger it is facing from the BJP and the RSS.By juxtaposing the 75th anniversary of the constitution and the RSS’s centenary in his Independence Day speech, Modi was implying a link between the two events, which is akin to the relationship between a mongoose and a cobra.RSS’s stand against ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’This is further evidenced by the remarks of Dattatreya Hosabale, RSS general secretary, in January this year that a decision must be made to remove the words “socialist” and “secular” from the preamble to the constitution, because those words were inserted during the Emergency in 1976 by the Indira Gandhi government.He did so in spite of the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the insertion of those words just on the eve of Constitution Day on November 25, 2024.RSS and Gandhi’s assassinationApart from the track record of the RSS in negating the constitution, its role in distributing sweets after the dastardly assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948 has been documented by none other than Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first home minister of India, whom the BJP and Modi try to appropriate. Patel banned the RSS in February 1948, and in September that year in a letter to its chief M.S. Golwalkar wrote,“All their [RSS leaders’] speeches were full of communal poison. It was not necessary to spread poison in order to enthuse the Hindus and organise for their protection. As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji. Even an iota of the sympathy of the government, or of the people, no more remained for the RSS … Opposition turned more severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhi’s death. Under these conditions, it became inevitable for the government to take action against the RSS…”In a letter to India‘s chief ministers on February 5, 1948, a day after the RSS was banned, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote that “a deliberate coup d’etat was planned involving the killing of several persons and the promotion of general disorder to enable the particular group concerned to seize power.”Patel and Nehru’s warnings need to be read alongside the unseemly praise Modi heaped on the RSS from an official platform.S.N. Sahu served as officer on special duty to former President K.R. Narayanan.This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.