Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has unambiguously signalled that the movement of youth groups, well-known civil society figures and leading political parties seeking to steady a democracy going off the rails on account of alleged voter manipulation by the Election Commission of India (ECI) through the craftily designed special intensive revision (SIR) exercise, will be fought on the ground and challenged across the country, directly from the engine room of Hindutva. In short, he said, the battle will be fought in the trenches of electoral politics and its logistics, as well as elsewhere, most notably at the level of ideology and propaganda. Cadres of Hindutva outfits have already been infiltrating peaceful protests, joining the police in beating up those speaking out against the SIR and heckling protest leaders. This is a striking feature that separates the present era from the past. The state now appears to be in solidarity with uncivil elements of civil society, who appear to be ideologically and physically prepared for the task at hand.At the level of government, the fight will most likely take the form of intensified repression through a more sophisticated use of the police, paramilitary forces, the magistracy and elements of the judiciary, besides attempts at political browbeating. We saw an example of this recently when Prime Minister Narendra Modi sharply attacked Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and his family at a so-called World Forum hosted by a news platform in New Delhi.Peaceful protests in public spaces against decisions that seek to disrupt and divert democracy are, thus, likely to be portrayed as acts of disorder and breaches of the peace, exposing protesters to preventive detention or arrest.RSS stance against SIR protestsThe RSS claims to have a network of branches across the country wider than that of any political party. Bhagwat recently cited figures indicating that volunteers of the political-Hindu organisation had already knocked on lakhs of doors in thousands of places to mobilise its adherents against peaceful protesters challenging the SIR.In the RSS, the chief’s annual Vijayadashami address sets the tone for the organisation’s activities for the year. It is followed reverentially by the faithful and closely scrutinised by observers. The RSS was founded on Vijayadashami, which marks the culmination of the Dussehra festival, 101 years ago. It has a century of experience in engaging in politics through covert means.Also read: India’s New Culture of Protest is Driven By the Quest for Dignity as Much as for RightsIn his Vijayadashami speech this year, delivered on October 20, Bhagwat foregrounded the RSS leadership’s decision to back the Narendra Modi government wholeheartedly in beating back the anti-SIR agitation. The Gandhian approach adopted by the agitators appears to make little difference to the plans of the RSS and its cohorts.Without offering evidence, Bhagwat has sought to denounce the protests as part of a foreign-inspired conspiracy. He has also drawn misleading parallels and links with disturbances in Europe and Bangladesh, where the State has had to contend with violent mobs.An investigation by the American far-right outlet Fox News appears to be invigorating the RSS ecosystem on this front.Indeed, whether fortuitously or otherwise, the use of duplicitous language suggesting that critics of the regime are consciously seeking to destabilise India appears to be a common thread running through the recent remarks of both the prime minister and the RSS chief.Modi and Bhagwat echo one anotherIn step with Bhagwat, Modi attacked the Congress. At the media platform mentioned above, he accused the opposition party of instigating young people to create disorder at a time when the world was searching for a new international order to which India could contribute meaningfully, but was being held back by forces of anarchy within the country. This argument sounds delusional to anyone not swayed by propaganda.There is something else in common between the RSS chief and the head of government.While espousing the cause of suppressing the peaceful rebellion against what protesters describe as SIR-led voter disappearance, neither Bhagwat nor Modi has found the time to comment on the ECI’s alleged deletion of more than 13 crore names from India’s electoral rolls through what critics call a colourable exercise of its constitutional authority. Both, however, have been quick to attribute motives to the protesters.Amit Shah’s ‘ghuspaithiya’ chargeAmid this welter of words, Union home minister Amit Shah has made his own contribution. Instead of addressing the SIR, against which protesters have risen in anger, he has predictably directed his ire at the Congress. Shah’s clear-cut view, expressed on the same day that Modi spoke against the party, is that the Congress, with Rahul Gandhi acting as a catalyst, sees its job as providing solace to “ghuspaithiya”, or infiltrators.Who are these supposedly inferior people? Where have they come from? What are their numbers? There is silence on these questions. Nor has there been any official explanation of how the alleged infiltrators managed to cross the border into India.Shah’s watchful eye has evidently missed something if the “ghuspaithiya” are here; the border forces under his charge would also have been found wanting if they had allowed them to enter. Does the home minister owe the people no accountability or explanation?Also read: From #2 to #1.5: How Amit Shah, Always Looming Large, Now Looms LargerShah’s “ghuspaithiya” allegation is not new. It has been raised during Assembly election campaigns in Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. His leader, the prime minister, had also used the same expression to target the Muslim community during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign and even earlier, in Assam in 2014.This appears to be a recurring preoccupation among BJP leaders with RSS backgrounds, even as they swear allegiance to the country’s secular, republican Constitution. The question, then, is unavoidable: in the context of the SIR, was Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar tasked by those who appointed him – the Prime Minister and his Home Minister – to remove the “ghuspaithiya”?Even when repeatedly questioned, the CEC has reportedly declined to disclose how many infiltrators were detected and dealt with in each state during the SIR process. This raises questions about whether the numbers were negligible, if such people were found at all, and whether disclosure would cause embarrassment and reputational damage to the Election Commission and the government. Yet this has not stopped those protesting against the SIR from being vilified as supporters of infiltrators.RSS’s ‘cultural’ identityThe deeply ideological RSS, whose activities are political in their implications and further its aim of establishing a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, continues to take shelter behind the claim that it is a “cultural” organisation. After Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, then home minister Vallabhbhai Patel accused the RSS of creating an atmosphere that made the murder possible. The RSS subsequently presented itself as a cultural organisation, unconnected with politics.The problem is that culture is not a category devoid of ideology. In the RSS’s case, it does not simply refer to the pursuit of particular art forms such as poetry, dance or music. If that were so, lifelong RSS volunteers such as Modi and Shah would be dancers, poets or actors, rather than leading figures in the political executive. Culture is not necessarily ideology-neutral, nor is it always separate from politics.Bhagwat’s Vijayadashami speech was a conspicuous example of this overlap. So, too, was the removal of dozens of photographs by Raihan Vadra depicting the recent protests from a prominent exhibition space in New Delhi, in close proximity of the protest sites.Ideological alliance against the agitationFor years, it has been said that Modi disdains Bhagwat and that there is little personal chemistry between the two, with the feeling being mutual. But when it comes to ideology, neither appears to put a foot wrong; they remain in lockstep.The denunciation of Gandhian-style peaceful protests against the SIR, the demand for the removal of the CEC and the call for a return to paper ballots have come naturally – and simultaneously – from the RSS leadership and the BJP-led government headed by Modi.Coincidence? Hardly. If the Modi regime sees the deepening of what critics describe as a fascist blueprint in India through the SIR as an urgent task, the RSS sees its role as exerting muscle power in civil society to help achieve that goal.Also read: In Charts: What the SIR Has Done to India’s Voter ListsThe BJP-led government is a natural and logical extension of RSS philosophy and ideology, whatever its occasional, feeble protestations to the contrary. Those leading the agitation against the SIR are their ideological and political opponents.If Bhagwat’s Vijayadashami speech seeks to tell us anything, it is that the battle against the Gandhian-style protests has been formally and officially joined by the RSS system as a whole, and not merely by the Modi government. There will be no pussyfooting.This is because the ruling establishment appears gripped by the fear that the early signs of fascism it seeks to entrench could be jeopardised if those challenging democracy through the SIR lose their battle against its defenders, who have taken to the streets. Whether history turns or not, India is at a point of inflection.Anand K. Sahay is a veteran journalist.For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here.