Dear Shri Mohan Bhagwat Ji,

I read, with great interest, your Vijayadashami speech, as published on your official website. I wanted to grasp the essence of your address without being clouded by negative thoughts. However, I must admit in advance that I have long been a critic of your ideology for reasons I will explain.

It was in the late sixties that I first came across your organisation, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Organisation). This was when an RSS Pracharak was stationed in Pathanamthitta, Kerala. I saw him organise an RSS Shakha with boys from Valanchuzhy, on the banks of the Achenkovil river.

I knew the Pracharak, though his name escapes me. One day, I accompanied my friend CR Sukumaran Nair to his house. He lived in a one-room outhouse, rent-free, provided by a once-wealthy Hindu family. Most days, he was also invited to have meals with the family. The room was sparsely furnished, but two large photographs stood out: those of KB Hedgewar, the RSS founder, and MS Golwalkar, his successor as Sarsanghchalak (Supreme Leader).

I became friendly with the Pracharak, but he never invited me to the Shakha. My neighbour Chandran became the unit leader and eventually rose to be a prominent RSS figure, only to meet a violent end. Frankly, I was not drawn to the ritualistic hoisting of the RSS flag or its worship, nor to the lathi-wielding exercises.

At that stage in life, I questioned all forms of worship, believing it was a waste of time. If God is all-powerful, why should He need man, a mere speck in the universe, to worship Him? That said, I was not hostile to the RSS. On the contrary, I learned the RSS anthem Namaste Sada Vatsale Matrubhume (Salutations to Thee, O Loving Motherland) by heart. Decades later, it helped me to gain access to an ashram in Kandhamal in Odisha, run by an RSS affiliate.

However, I could never relate to extolling the country of my birth, let alone worshipping it. Our Indian identity is an accident of birth, just as it would be if we had been born in what is now Pakistan. Had that been the case, you might have been the leader of a Muslim organisation, and I, a journalist critiquing fundamentalism in some form.

Let me add here that I am no less a patriot than you. I pay taxes and respect the laws of the land. I strongly believe in the dictum: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." Even within India, had we been born into different castes or religions, our lives would have been entirely different.

Returning to your speech, you proudly mentioned that the RSS is entering its 100th year. This is certainly a proud moment for the organisation. I am sure grand celebrations will mark the occasion. Yesterday, I saw about three dozen senior citizens gathering under the RSS flag at a park near my Delhi apartment. They recited the anthem and concluded with slogans extolling Bharat Mata and shouting 'Vande Mataram' three times before dispersing. There was nothing objectionable in what they did.

That, after all, is what the RSS has been doing for a century. I visited Hedgewar Bhavan in Nagpur two decades ago. I saw Golwalkar's easy chair, equipped with a built-in desk where he wrote letters in the museum located on the fourth floor. With permission, I briefly sat on it. What struck me most was the number of elderly volunteers whiling away their time reading newspapers. They had dedicated their lives to the organisation but now seemed to have nowhere else to go. I really felt sorry for them, particularly as I enjoy being in the company of my grandchildren.

I recalled what VD Savarkar once said, as quoted in Walter K Andersen and Shridhar D Damle's first authoritative book on the RSS, The Brotherhood in Saffron: "The epitaph for the RSS volunteer will read: He was born, he joined the RSS, and he died without accomplishing anything." Today, Savarkar is an icon for Hindutva forces, but he was once a harsh critic of the RSS.

I acknowledge that the RSS, which began with just five people in 1925, has grown into the world's largest "voluntary" organisation. Many of the country's leaders, from the Prime Minister to various ministers and governors, received their initial training in the RSS. I am fond of saying that yours is the only NGO that runs a country. This is no small feat.

As a student of your organisation, I have observed that many of your successful strategies were adapted from the Catholic Church's attempts to reach remote communities. The Bells of Lhasa describes how Capuchin priests unsuccessfully sought out a Christian community in the Forbidden City of Lhasa, only to find it was a myth.

Your organisation refrained from participating in the freedom struggle, believing its primary mission was to unify Hindu society. Did the RSS involve itself in national movements? Not to my knowledge, though individual members may have contributed, such as during the resistance to the Emergency in 1975. But as an organisation, the RSS largely complied with government orders. No wonder Savarkar mocked the RSS.

I must commend you for the abundance of platitudes in your speech. As usual, you glorified the past. Last year, you paid tribute to Maharani Durgavati, whose 500th birth anniversary was observed. This year, you noted the 300th birth anniversary of Ahilya Bai Holkar, the 200th of Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati, who founded Arya Samaj and the 150th of Birsa Munda, a tribal youth from Jharkhand.

Ahilya Bai Holkar is renowned for building and restoring temples across India, even in faraway Varanasi. No big deal, as temple construction, was what most rulers spent their money on. However, I wish you had mentioned the Rani of Kerala, whose proclamation on girls' education more than 200 years ago had a significant impact on Travancore and the rest of the country. I was happy that the anniversary was celebrated with a meaningful seminar by the Institute of Social Sciences in New Delhi.

Had the kings and queens of those periods invested in education and public welfare, India would have become a great nation. You praise Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati, but do you know he was against idol worship? I attended a funeral at an Arya Samaj Mandir in Chandigarh, where I noticed shlokas from sacred texts inscribed on the walls but no idols. Do you want to eliminate idol worship? Wouldn't that be sacrilegious?

You praised Birsa Munda, but do you know he converted to Christianity and became Birsa David/Daud to receive an education at a missionary school? He declared himself a god and rebelled against the British. It's true he and his supporters attacked churches, but they also targeted zamindars, government property, and outsiders (or dikkus, as they called them).

If Birsa Munda were alive today, he would be appalled to see that the levers of economic power in Jharkhand are in the hands of the dikkus he fought as fiercely as he did the British. He was only 25 when he died. You can't be selective in your appreciation of him. For instance, Bhagat Singh was an atheist and a leftist, facts that should not be ignored when recognising his contributions to the nation.

If everything was so idyllic in the past, how did the Mughals and Europeans so easily conquer and rule India for centuries? When the Battle of Plassey took place, the lower castes watched while the warrior castes fought. When the Portuguese occupied Goa, it was ruled by Muslims, who were a microscopic minority in the state. The majority community sided with the foreigners. If every Goan had thrown a stone at the Portuguese, they would have run for their lives.

Glorifying the past may serve you politically, but it denies historical truth. In your speech, you said that life has become easier today. But how did education spread in this country? How did vernacular languages survive when the elite derided them, taking pride in the language of the gods? How do we have modern hospitals? Do you know life expectancy in 1900 was only 22 years? Today, it's over 70, thanks to pioneering hospitals like St. Stephen's in Delhi.

Whether you admit it or not, the East India Company was the first to establish a modern hospital in India. I'm not disputing that Ayurveda and other traditional medicine systems existed, but they didn't bring the kind of progress that modern medicine introduced. Today, I read the sad news that Acharya Satyendra Das, the head priest of Ayodhya's Shri Ram temple, was admitted to the ICU of a modern allopathic hospital.

On the contrary, a minister in Yogi Adityanath's cabinet, Sanjay Singh Gangwar, claimed that spending time in a cowshed and cleaning it can cure cancer. Had he belonged to any other party, he would have been sacked by now. The Constitution, which you quoted in your speech, expects people to promote the scientific temper. But in the BJP, there are many leaders with similar views. I once wrote to you, asking for 15 minutes to explain why cow slaughter is necessary to save the cow. If given the chance, I would gladly make a presentation to RSS leaders.

In your speech, you mentioned Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu as troublesome areas. Yes, all of them are not ruled by the BJP. In a democracy, people have the right to choose, unlike in the RSS, where successors are nominated in a sealed envelope to be opened only when the post falls vacant. You shed tears over the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata, but you didn't mention two girls, aged three and four, molested in a preschool in Maharashtra. Shockingly, the accused was shot without investigation.

To this day, I don't understand why thousands of RSS cadres are trained and hold march-pasts from time to time. LK Advani, in his autobiography, mentions that when the RSS started marching in Karachi, Hindus felt secure. But what was the outcome? Advani had to flee Sindh and seek refuge in India. The RSS couldn't protect anyone.

You say India became a powerful nation in recent years, implying since Narendra Modi came to power. You're mistaken. Nations don't become powerful overnight. We've been building strength for decades. The ordnance factories established by VK Krishna Menon as defence minister played just as significant a role as when India tested its first nuclear bomb in 1974 at Pokhran, Rajasthan. I would be the happiest if India became the most prosperous nation, where no one would go to bed without a proper supper.

Today, we have one of the largest armed forces and police forces in the world. I was proud when Major Sita Shelke and her team of 140 army personnel built a Bailey bridge in Wayanad. We have the resources to handle any situation, internal or external. So why does the RSS need to recruit swayamsevaks and waste their time wielding lathis? What is the purpose of this?

Instead, you should train them in skills that could lead to gainful employment. In your speech, you mentioned someone pelting stones during Ganeshotsava. That's a law-and-order issue, and our police are capable of handling such matters.

You also spoke about mobile phone use by children and drug addiction. These are societal issues that need collective action. How would you feel if the majority community in every country formed RSS-like groups and held route marches? Wouldn't you call it madness?

Mahatma Gandhi wanted the Congress to disband after India gained independence. You could achieve something greater by disbanding the armed wing of the RSS in its 100th year. It would be a great service to the nation.

Yours, etc.