Hypocrisy is inimical to scrutiny. It demands surrender and obedience. If you persist with inspection because reality is more precious than pretense, skeletons start tumbling out.Some cupboards are full of skeletons. What’s the time required to understand this simple truth? Aren’t one hundred years more than enough? The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), busy in 100th anniversary celebrations, needs serious introspection about its character, philosophy, performance and achievements. It needs to look within to find the alarming gap between its words and deeds; to discover why it is grappling with a crisis of legitimacy despite such enormous power and wealth. After all, something must be fundamentally wrong if the cupboard has more skeletons than laurels. Speaking at the concluding function of its training camp in Nagpur this week, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said only India could give a uniting vision to the world driven by conflicts and self-interests. He explained how countries not directly linked with the war suffered and how brutal powers captured or devastated smaller nations, and bombed civilians, because of narrow self-interests. “Apna vikas aur shristi ka vinash (destruction of one’s own development and creation)” – Bhagwat used these poignant words to condemn nations that attack others, lamenting that the world listened to brute power, not the voice of conscience. He said India can impose the voice of conscience and harmonise economic and moral contradictions when it really becomes the Vishwaguru. He claimed the RSS so sincerely worked on individuals to build such committed characters who could achieve these national and international goals. He stressed the virtue of “global fraternity” while defining the role of a world leader. That will sound credible if the RSS hypocrisy is not scrutinised. Isn’t it true that their government, led by Narendra Modi, stands in a loving embrace with Israel, the country that symbolises self-interest, violence and conflict today? Hasn’t the Modi government failed to speak what is right in front of Donald Trump who has wantonly bullied and humiliated India? Where was the “voice of conscience” when innocent women and children were massacred in Gaza and Iran? Has the Modi government called out the forces responsible for the suffering of nations not directly connected with the war?How can India become a credible voice of conscience and forge global fraternity when its own credentials in the context of democracy and constitutional principles of equality and justice are suspect? Bhagwat boasts of character-building, but who are the RSS products known for exceptional contributions to peaceful coexistence, a vision for a better world and commitment to justice? Bhagwat expressed concern at the loot of natural resources, reminding us that even a tiny “tulsi plant” is a mother to Hindus. Did India see more trees cut under any other government than the current dispensation? Bhagwat rightly conceded India didn’t have the preparations required to become the Vishawaguru. Preparations require a constructive agenda, social harmony and a just system. A brutal and unethical rampaging can’t create that infrastructure. Rahul’s predictionLeader of Opposition (LoP)in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has dropped hints about implosion in Narendra Modi’s system, arguing that abnormal pressures created by the political control of democratic institutions might have crossed the limit of tolerance. Revealing that he was getting sensitive information from within the system, the Congress leader argued that the fear of people’s reprisal had triggered panic among the bureaucrats. He specifically referred to the Election Commission (EC), suggesting that a possible revolt against rigging might have struck alarm into the officials.While the LoP can legitimately indulge in a psychological warfare against a weak government, Rahul Gandhi avoids hollow rhetoric and doesn’t make public statements without a reason. He has been predicting a severe economic crisis, of a kind not experienced before, at a time when the youth was already troubled by unemployment and paper-leak scandals. Modi’s personal vulnerabilities too have acquired disturbing dimensions. While the tag of “Compromised PM” is enough to break any leader’s political spine, Modi’s disastrous foreign policy has doubtlessly invited dire economic consequences for the country. It is obviously not for nothing that Rahul is saying Modi will cease to be the prime minister within a year. What, however, should instigate a fierce socio-political churning is the hint about internal strains in the “system of control” because that directly affects democracy in India. Rahul said he was getting the messages of the chief election commissioner. That means officials in the Election Commission are forwarding those messages to the LoP. This shows the extent of unease within the commission over Gyanesh Kumar’s decisions and style of working. Almost every opposition party has time and again said elections were rigged and Gyanesh Kumar worked as a BJP agent. Rahul too has said those responsible for destruction of democracy will be punished even after retirement. All officers are obviously not aligned with the BJP and the fear of consequences for any wrongdoing is natural. Officers in other departments are bound to feel similar unease, or suffer moral qualms, if something that is not legal or constitutional is being done. This should be true of the judiciary and the media as well.Also read: ‘We’re an Electoral Autocracy’: Meet the Cockroaches at the First Cockroach Janta Party ProtestPeople who worked closely with Modi are now talking about the impending economic crisis, data manipulation and absence of purposeful reforms. Corporate world is abuzz with resentment because of Modi’s unbridled love for a couple of business houses. There is suffocation in the academia because of distortion of history, unscientific concoctions, flawed priorities and mass recruitment of RSS-aligned teachers. Even in bureaucracy and police, the tendency to protect and promote incompetent and corrupt officers have generated immense dissatisfaction.While coercion and blackmail can’t suppress the truth forever, any attempt for total control over individuals’ political consciousness is bound to fail. A time will come when the system will implode. What happened in Sri Lanka, Nepal or Bangladesh are not alien fantasies India is immune from. The massive response to the casual cockroach remark by the chief justice of India was symptomatic of the anger and discontent brewing within the surface. The Modi government will commit a blunder by presuming that their doctrine of force is an insurance against public revolt.Freedom and dissentRemember that image of Rahul Gandhi sitting on the road just outside parliament house, surrounded by police and para-military forces a few years ago? He was stopped there along with other opposition MPs who wanted to march to the Rashtrapati Bhawan to submit a memorandum. Visuals of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra jumping barricades only to be caught a few yards later also flit through the mind. She was part of the Congress protest against price-rise and unemployment but the police blocked the exit gate of the party headquarters disallowing anybody to step out. Similar blockade happened when opposition MPs had to walk to the Election Commission for a meeting. There are countless incidents that show the Modi Government ruthlessly crushed dissent and demonstrations, particularly after it won a second term in 2019. Massive protests were organised in almost every major city of the world against Israeli genocide in Gaza but Modi government took care to keep Delhi out of it. Even farmers were not allowed to enter the nation’s capital, forcing them to sit on the borders for a year. Many people anticipated a similar crackdown on the Cockroach Janata Party but it was allowed to protest on the specific issue of Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. People’s anger, however, is not made to order. The event vividly showed how anger against the Modi government was intensifying in every section of society. Men, women and youth talked about the rotten system, rampant corruption, attacks on democracy and the conspiracy of diverting attention by invoking religious and communal sentiments. The debate about the nature, agenda and scope of this movement can continue but it has doubtlessly crystalised the anti-government sentiment, exploding the myth of Modi’s enduring popularity. The mainstream media’s decade-long efforts to conceal mis-governance and failures now stand unraveled. The Congress party’s student’s wing NSUI and Youth Congress had turned paper-leak into a major political concern by its sustained nation-wide campaign. Rahul Gandhi also took up the matter. But the prime minister, who speaks on irrelevant subjects, remained silent. He probably believes political storms blow over with the passage of time, without realising that loss of credibility can’t be repaired by propaganda.Sanjay K. Jha is a political commentator.