Teesta Setalvad wants to deconstruct India's cultural nationalism: RSS on Hindutva

Coming down heavily on social activist Teesta Setalvad for urging the Supreme Court to reconsider the 1995 judgment on Hindutva, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Wednesday said she wants to deconstruct India's cultural nationalism, adding the apex court's verdict is a slap on all those forces who are decrying, deriding and insulting the term.

"Teesta Setalvad and her ilk have problems not only with the term 'Hindutva' but cultural legacy of India. They want to deconstruct India's cultural nationalism, civilizational and cultural legacies.that's why they are opposed to Hindutva. The Supreme Court verdict is a slap on all those forces who are decrying, deriding and insulting Hindutva," RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha told ANI.

"Hindutva is a core value. It represents the civilizational and cultural ethos of the nation. It is synonym with the nationalism, our cultural and civilizational progress for the last 10,000 years," he added.

The Supreme Court will today continue its hearing on the Hindutva case which deals with electoral malpractices arising out of its 1995 judgment.

During the hearing by the seven judges' constitutional bench, the apex court yesterday said it won't reconsider the 1995 judgment which defined Hindutva as "a way of life and not a religion."

The observations came after an on interlocutory application filed by Setalvad requested the bench to reconsider the 1995 judgment.

A seven-judge constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice T. S. Thakur, said the court will not go into the larger debate as to what is Hindutva or what its meaning is and will not reconsider the 1995 judgment.

The remarks were made by the bench when some advocates sought to intervene in the ongoing hearing which commenced last Tuesday.

Last week, Setalvad had sought the top court's intervention in the matter with an application stating that religion and politics should not be mixed and a direction be passed to delink religion from politics.

The apex court bench also comprised Justices M. B. Lokur, S. A. Bobde, A. K. Goel, U. U. Lalit, D. Y. Chandrachud and L. Nageshwar Rao.

The apex court instead took up a separate plea filed in 1990 whether seeking of votes in the name of religion will amount to a corrupt practice under the Representation of the People Act warranting disqualification.

It may be recalled that the Bombay High Court had set aside the election of Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi in the mid-1990s.

The matter was then moved to apex court, which in 1995 overturned the High Court order saying Hindutva is a way of life.

Since then, the issue was raised in the top court many times, including in 2002 when the court referred the matter to a seven-judge bench for clarity.