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There was a certain incongruity to Kumar Mangalam Birla’s appearance last week at an RSS event, that too in the company of its  sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagat. There is nothing innocuous about the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and, therefore, it is difficult to comprehend why the tycoon was invited and, more importantly, why this very, very rich man chose to accept the invitation. Or, was it the other way round?

Granted, Birla is not the first tycoon to make the pilgrimage to the Sangh’s headquarters. Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, Shiv Nadar and Rahul Bajaj have made the same journey in recent years. Also, it needs to be noted that as a businessman Kumar Mangalam Birla is widely respected and is generally not clubbed with those who are deemed to be “crony capitalists” – that clutch of “entrepreneurs” who have prospered exponentially because of their proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On the other hand, there is nothing benign about the RSS. It is regarded by many as both calculating and conspiratorial. Its top brass is not unaware that the organisation has less than a kosher reputation. For that reason, it has been striving for years to garner respectability by luring eminent personalities – like the former president of India, Pranab Mukherjee, or eminent nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar– to share its manch. Many “eminent” public figures fall for the false........

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