A WEEK before Mohan Bhagwat led a three-day lecture series in Delhi to mark 100 years of the RSS, a closed-door session was held for around 80 delegates from its six organisations working in the economic field, who were shown slides on the country’s social and economic situation.
The special invitee and star presenter was Murli Manohar Joshi, 91, the former BJP chief who was eased into the defunct ‘Margdarshak Mandal’ after Narendra Modi and Amit Shah’s reign in the party began. And his leading point, quoting among others the Left-wing economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, was that economic growth can’t be the sole objective of a country.
Joshi, who presented around 70 of the slides at the ‘Sangh’s Arth Samooh’ meeting, also spoke about income inequality in the country and India’s poor per capita GDP – at a time when the Modi government is highlighting India’s rise as the world’s third largest economy. He proposed ‘Degrowth’, meaning “decolonization of public discourse away from the focus on economic growth, aiming to abolish it as a social objective”.
As per the accounts of nearly a dozen delegates present at the meeting whom The Indian Express spoke to, RSS chief Bhagwat lauded Joshi for accurately reflecting the Sangh’s views, saying: “Joshi ji ne sab kuchh keh diya hai (Dr Joshi has said everything).”
Joshi did not respond to detailed questions sent by The Indian Express about his presentation. The meeting held on August 19-20 was coordinated by B Surendran, the organisation secretary of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), whose stand often contradicts the Modi government’s on labour issues. Sources said the core group present at the meeting was conceptualised in March this year, and the August meeting was its biggest so far.
Quoting Amartya Sen, Joshi said: “If the economic success of a nation is only judged by income, the important goal of well-being is missed.” The senior BJP leader added: “I prefer to position the Hindu view of the world as an integrative anchor in order to understand, develop and challenge the scholarly field of spirituality.”
On wealth inequality, the former BJP chief noted that in 2021, the wealthiest 10% of India’s population owned 65% of the total household wealth. The per capita GDP of India stood at only $2,878.5, he added, placing it far below Japan ($33,955.7), for example, whom it overtook to become the fourth largest economy in the world.
Talking about Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) founder Deendayal Upadhyay and his ‘Integral Humanism’ concept, Joshi said an over-dependence on foreign nations was not in India’s interests. Introducing ‘Degrowth’ in the country’s vocabulary would signify a shift towards using fewer natural resources and organising society differently, along the values of “sharing”, “simplicity”, “conviviality”, “care”, and the “commons”, Joshi said.
Further quoting Upadhyay, he said: “We plan to obtain what we do not have, but we do not plan to protect what we have. We failed to focus on agriculture and indigenous industries, while welcoming foreign collaborations that undermine our interests and prestige.”
A PhD and former Head of Department, Physics, at Allahabad University, Joshi also spoke about the drug menace facing the country, an increase in suicides and the devastation caused by natural disasters, referring to climate change in this regard. “The stability of roads” in the Himalayas was more crucial than simply “widening” them, Joshi said.
He urged the delegates present to combine theory with practical action, while proposing a blueprint for an achievable plan.
Sources said that RSS sarkaryavah Datta Hosbale, who attended the session, urged the delegates that the presentations and discussions at the meeting should not be seen as criticism of the government, nor was its purpose to review policies or come to any decision.
Those who attended the meeting
Apart from the BMS, delegates of the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh, Sahkar Bharti, Grahak Panchayat, Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Laghu Udyog Bharti were present at the meeting. Besides Bhagwat and Hosbale, RSS sah-sarkaryawahs Krishna Gopal, C R Mukund, Arun Kumar, Ram Dutt Chakradhar, Atul Limaye, and Alok Kumar were present throughout. Gopal is designated the “paalak” or patron of this group.
Joshi was a special invitee along with RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy, BJP general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh, BJP general secretary Arun Singh, Member of the PM Economic Advisory Council Sanjeev Sanyal, and Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Khanna among a few others.
A former Union Human Resource Development Minister, Joshi cited statistics to underline the drug menace, saying 15.8 million children aged 10 to 17 years are addicted to narcotics, an AIIMS study had revealed that one-third of Delhi’s street children used drugs and alcohol, and quoted Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that 7% of Indians were trapped in narcotics.
On suicide rates, Joshi said the NCRB data showed that total suicides in India had increased from 1.34 lakh in 2018 to 1.70 lakh in 2022. Between 2019 and 2021, 35,950 students had taken their own lives, while 98 had committed suicide from 2018 to 2023 at prestigious institutions like IITs, IIMs, and in Central universities, he said.
Joshi also noted that India fared poorly in gross enrolment ratio at the college level, with its figure of 32.7% a significant improvement from 5.5% in 1995, but still far behind countries ranging from Poland (75.3%) to Japan (64.6%).
On the nature of India’s economy, Joshi noted that 43.5% of its workforce was employed in agriculture, again comparing this to 7.6% in Poland and 3% in Japan. India’s industrial sector employed 25.03% of the workforce in 2023, he said, while 31.5% were in the service sector – while the figures for Japan were 73.3% and Poland 62.8%. Furthermore, he said, only 23.9% of India’s employed population works as salaried employees, compared to 80.1% in Poland and 90.5% in Japan.
Joshi also cautioned against disruptions that Artificial Intelligence may bring, saying these could exacerbate societal inequalities.
Referring to recent natural disasters in Uttarakhand, Jammu and Himachal Pradesh, Joshi warned of a “climate emergency”. The Western economic model had failed, he said, citing the different wars that are on and the inability of the United Nations to resolve them. He said areas like Assam, Bihar and the Sundarbans, that are susceptible to climate disasters, could be hotspots for climate-induced migration.
Murli Manohar Joshi at an event with Delhi CM Rekha Gupta and BJP leader Mukhtar Naqvi on Sunday. (Facebook) 
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