It’s not the RSS, but a splinter group, which has has come out of the organisation, that has become the force of Hindutva in West Bengal.
Hindu Samhati, the organisation created by former RSS pracharak Tapan Ghosh in 2008, is now at the centre of the storm. The organisation was found to be one of the forces involved in communal tension in Malda where miscreants had torched a police station and decamped with important police documents. The forum made headlines again when its members clashed with a Muslim fundamentalist group in Basirhat.
Ghosh was arrested on Wednesday while converting a group of Muslims to Hinduism at Esplanade, in the heart of Kolkata. However, the reason behind his arrest was not the conversion, but the assault on some reporters and camera crew. The journalists were attacked by members of Hindu Samhati when they demanded to know the names and locality of the people being converted.
The Mamata Banerjee government, which was waiting for an excuse to arrest Ghosh, sent the police immediately to arrest him. He has been booked under non-bailable sections, including arson and attempt to murder.
A few months ago, during one of the interactions, Ghosh told The Week, “We are the only force because of whom Hindus could still live in Bengal.”
He, however, is no fan of the BJP either as he calls it a “spineless political force” like the Congress which shows concern for Hindus, but does little for them. He has no animosity towards Mamata Banerjee and is even willing to back her if she agrees to act against Muslim radicals.
When he was part of the RSS, Ghosh was responsible for organising several RSS branches in different parts of the Bengal, including Malda, Nadia, North 24 and South 24 Parganas districts. The RSS, however, decided to disown him when he turned out to be too radical. He also had differences with
the then RSS pracharak K.S. Sudarshan although he was close to Mohan Bhagwat. When Sudarshan asked him to tone down, Ghosh refused to do so. His alleged involvement in the riot in Sunderban area in 2007 provoked the RSS further. He was expelled from the organisation in 2008 after he was booked by the Left front government for the riot.
He formed Hindu Samhati the same year that he was expelled from the RSS. Over the years, Hindu Samhati grew stronger. The forum now takes on Muslim radical groups like Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh is trying to gain foothold in the state by forming its Indian counterpart Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India.
The conversion event—which was also attended by a band of Army man, including Major Gen (Retied) G.D. Bakshi—was an answer to the Muslim appeasement in the state. Ghosh, however, does not believe that the BJP could ever change the situation and the RSS for him is nothing but a “social organisation or NGO”.
Minutes after his arrest, a few lawyers showed up at the police station and said, “Tapan da cannot try to murder anyone. He would definitely be bailed out. He is a social reformer.”
