The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) cares about three things, sometimes in that order.
1. Harming Muslims.
2. Controlling Hindu women through the weapon of 'culture'.
3. Maintaining caste hierarchy.
If this seems like an oversimplification to you, read their own documents, read the speeches of their own founders and the people they worship. You will find adequate evidence.
Between 2014 and 2026, they could largely do all three, unhindered, through total capture of institutions like the Election Commission, media, and judiciary to name a few.
However, power is necessary but not sufficient to control society. You need one more thing. Moral legitimacy.
Moral legitimacy is what enables them to say no live-in relationships, inter-religion marriages are love jihad, Muslims performing namaz is jihad, Muslims taking government jobs is jihad, arranged marriages are the only good kind, parents and elders are supreme, and so on.
It is this moral legitimacy, which has been reduced to smithereens after the scam of loot from Ram Mandir was exposed and the events in July 2026.
The Mirror Cracked From Side to Side
It is a shattered mirror that cannot be put back again. The slogans— "chappan inch ka chota bandar, bal Narender bal Narender," and, "gali gali mein shor hai, Modi-Shah chor hain," and other more inventive ones are simply a consequence.
What happened is much bigger than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bankipur bypolls, the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, or the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
Therefore, the first thing that Mohan Bhagwat, Modi, and the likes of Anupam Kher did was focus on the expletives being used by women. It was a desperate and clever attempt at regaining moral legitimacy. It was an appeal—you may dislike us, but surely even you don’t think women should open their mouths? It was followed swiftly with 'look at the kind of clothes they are wearing', 'should ‘girls’ wear such clothes?'
They threatened women, doxxed them, abused them, threatened their parents, but it didn’t stick in the discourse. X and Instagram are full of the abuses they invented—they made it ok to use expletives on X, to call journalists 'presstiitutes', Modi personally followed many on X who viciously abused women all day and night.
A few days before Dharmendra Pradhan resigned, I met an auto driver who I frequently travel with, who wears a teeka and says 'Jai Shri Ram' with an affectionate smile when he sees me. I always smile and respond with 'Jai Shri Ram' too.
He asked me—what did I think of the protests. I shrugged and said, "I am not sure", and turned the question back on him. He paused and said—"Please don’t mind, but who can defend young girls being slapped on their chests? Young children being beaten mercilessly? If a cop touched a girl’s chest in my chawl, you have no idea what I would do."
The Cats Among the Pigeons
Modi and Bhagwat have subsequently resorted to tactical manoeuvres; controlling Instagram, changing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s social media time, doing ‘outreach’ with Gen Z. But none of this will help.
It will not help because, to regain moral legitimacy, their core being would have to change. Modi and Bhagwat mouthing ‘clock it’ and ‘first in my bloodline’ is unconvincing, because they say all Western things are bad, English is bad, marrying without permission of parents is bad, elders are gods, politicians are gods, homosexuality is evil.
The BJP-RSS cannot become the opposite of their core, regressive, anti-science selves. They may still win elections for a while, simply because they still control resources and institutions. But their status as the highest arbiters of morality is irreversibly lost.
My auto driver friend continued, "Do you know, I had also given many government exams. Some got leaked, some delayed... politicians ask for a lot of money… my parents are embarrassed that I drive an auto rikshaw, but what can I do?"
Some will point to contradictions. No one is protesting against the acquittal of Brij Bhushan, or the continuing atrocities against Muslims, with one exception in West Bengal.
However, protests happen where politicians and/or the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) ask for them. The absence of these protests will not change the ‘new’ reality which is reflected in two slogans. 'Jab Jab modi darta hai, hindu-muslim karta hai', and ‘Balaatkaari kahan milenge, BJP ke daftar mein.’ If anything, Brij Bhushan’s acquittal reaffirms the distance between the truth and fraud of the BJP-RSS.
While most commentary is focused on the Gen Z, the ripple effects have spread far beyond, as my auto driver friend illustrated. On the day that Dharmendra Pradhan resigned, I was at a red light stop where a transperson who was begging approached me. I often frequent this light at the Juhu Circle. I said, "Do you know Pradhan has resigned?"
The reaction was disbelief. "Are you serious? I just checked 30 minutes back? Are you serious?" They were thrilled.
Echoes of Dissent
There is a video on my Instagram from the Shaheen Bagh protests where a Hindu boy is anguished but not talking about Citizenship Amendment Act-National Register of Citizens (CAA-NRC), but instead talking about how there is no work, and that, at least, they should release tenders for parking lots. The Shaheen Bagh protests were the first truly national expression of disappointment with the Modi-BJP-RSS.
Thanks to the pandemic, the BJP-RSS got some breathing space, and deployed mainstream and social media to sell several lies to the general public. That only Muslims protested, Muslims rioted and those riots were organised by Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, Muslims spread COVID-19 and so on. I see even well-meaning people believe some of this bullsh*t until confronted with facts.
Thousands of students from Delhi University, IITs, IIMs, across India participated in the anti-CAA protests. An image, which had then gone viral and now stands forgotten, was of a man showing his janeu to cops after Modi made his infamously bigoted ‘kapdon se pehchaanon’ (identify them by their clothes) comment.
Within days Amit Shah and Modi had backtracked, and Shah was forced to say no NRC will happen, and that people should understand the chronology. The protestors were from all religions, but it was most certainly Muslims who suffered disproportionately.
Umar and Sharjeel remain in prison and the BJP-RSS bloodthirsty network, which has declared them terrorists, has not started the trial against them, because it has no proof.
They tried the same tactics during the farmer protests, called them foreign-funded, Khalistani, etc. It didn’t work, and the farm laws had to be withdrawn.
Herein is a note of caution and then of gratitude, both inter-linked. The caution is to the CJP and Opposition politicians. You will not defeat the BJP-RSS with ‘tactics’ which are premised on ignoring their communalism. You will not do it by ignoring the plight of hatred and discrimination which Indian Muslims suffer in India.
The generation you claim to now represent is already doing it on social media, but you must add your voice to theirs, or they will very quickly get rid of you as well, much like liberals in America abandoned the Democrats over their hypocrisy on Palestine. You may think today that this is impossible, but you are a living example of the impossible becoming possible.
Now for the note of gratitude. For Bapu and Babasaheb.
Till 1947 Bapu fought for India. In 1948 he died for India. In 2026 he guides India. In the fast undertaken by people like Neha Bora, in the non-violent protest by use of humour on social media, in rejecting fear, in shaking empires which seem invincible. "Sabarmati ke sant, tune kar diya kamaal." (Saint of Sabarmati, you have done it!)
To Babasaheb, for showing us what is possible and what is our birthright.
For Umar and Sharjeel who remain in prison for demanding that the Constitution of India mean something.
For farmers, for Rohith Vemula, Gauri Lankesh. For the late Sitaram Yechury who once told me: Never underestimate the oppressed.
(The author is a lawyer and research consultant based in Mumbai. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)