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Thiruvananthapuram: The Centre’s move to name the second campus of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) in Thiruvananthapuram after RSS ideologue ‘Guruji’ M S Golwalkar has made the Left and the Congress fretting and fuming. As expected, the decision has elated the RSS-BJP camp as this is for the first time that a major establishment is being made a memorial to a revered icon of the saffron fountainhead.
A major research and Development centre, RGCB is an autonomous institute under the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, based out of Kerala capital. It was started as a scientific establishment under the Kerala Government, which was later handed over to the Centre. Over the decades, RGCB has made immense contributions in molecular biological research, which has a direct bearing on health and medicine. Its recent contributions include a cost-effective COVID-19 testing kit.
The decision of RGCB Board to dedicate its upcoming campus as a memorial to Golwalkar was revealed by Union Minister for Science & Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan the other day. A major knowledge hub, the facility will be known as “Shri Guruji Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar National Centre for Complex Disease in cancer and viral infection”, he said while giving an online message to a curtain-raiser session ahead of India International Science Festival (IISF), hosted by RGCB. Incidentally, a key organizer of IISF, which is to hold its 6th annual edition later this month, is pro-RSS Vijnan Bharati.
Golwalkar, who helmed RSS from 1940 to 1973, is as reviled a figure for the Communists as he is idolized on a high pedestal by the Sangh Parivar. The RSS veteran had been unsparing in his criticism of the Indian Communists in his writings, virtually dubbing them as an unpatriotic lot more eager to serve their international order than defending the national priorities, during and after the independence. The Left ideologues, on the other hand, castigate him as one of the most polarizing figures of India who had never concealed his admiration for Adolf Hitler. In their political slanging match, both sides often draw upon Golwalkar’s Bunch of Thought to underscore their points. So, nothing is surprising that the Left leaders find it hard to digest the idea of a major science institute being turned into a memorial to Golwalkar, that too In one of their few remaining fiefs.
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Red flagging the decision, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan shot off a letter to Harsh Vardhan asking him to reconsider it. He wanted the campus to be named after a prominent scientist. CPI (M) Polit Buro member M A Baby said there was no justification in naming the campus after Golwalkar who sowed seeds of communal hatred and divisions in the country.
The Congress too finds it extremely uncomfortable that an institution that carries the name of late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is going to have its sub-centre made a memorial to the RSS stalwart. Leading the onslaught for the Congress, Shashi Tharoor, who represents Kerala capital in the Lok Sabha, sought to know how could the Union Government “memorialize” a premier science facility after a person who placed religion over science?
He went on to suggest that the campus be made a befitting tribute to Dr P Palpu, the 19th-century social reformer and bacteriologist. Born in Kerala, Dr Palpu was the first qualified modern medicine practitioner from the Ezhava community. He moved to the princely state of Mysore as he had no prospect of professionally coming up in Travancore where the caste discrimination was extremely rigid. Dr Palpu made a deep impression in Mysore where he organized the public health system on modern lines, and successfully fought outbreak of epidemics.
Refusing to be carried away by the Left-Congress outcry, the BJP and RSS are jubilant about the Centre’s “bold” decision to get Golwalkar’s name etched in a major R&D centre in the state. Countering the opposition, the saffron camp accused the critics of conveniently glossing over the fact that Golwalkar was a post-graduate in Biology from Banaras Hindu University. ‘Guruji’, they say, had renounced a high academic career to devote his life for the service of the nation.
They also see the decision as yet another front to open an ideological onslaught on detractors. The BJP-RSS leaders sounded confident that the Left-Congress campaign, or even the intervention of the LDF government, is not going to have any impact as this is well-thought-out decision is a fait accompli.a
