German envoy’s Nagpur visit courts controversy

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 19.

Germany’s Ambassador to India Walter Lindner’s exuberant outreach has landed him in a controversy after he visited the RSS headquarters in Nagpur on Wednesday. A social media storm has erupted after a tweet to this effect by the envoy.

Lindner, noticed for frequently posting photos with a cherry-red Ambassador along with his guest of the day, showed he was not unfamiliar with RSS’ history when he posted, “visit of Headquarters of RSS in Nagpur and long meeting with its Sarsanghchalak (Chief) Mohan Bhagwat. Founded 1925, it is world’s largest voluntary organisation - though not uncontroversialy (sic) perceived throughout its history.’’

But the social media was unconvinced and the more radical sought his removal through an online petition which though failed to reach the minimum threshold of 1,000 signatures till late in the evening.

Audrey Truschke, author and an academic at Rutgers University-Newark, found it “especially disturbing” that the German ambassador, “of all people, helping to cover-up the RSS’s extreme bigotry which was partly inspired by the Nazis.’’

The online petition said his visit condoned the RSS’ ideological and institutional inspiration from  European fascist movements. “He was further pictured with a photo of RSS leader M.S. Golwalkar, who wrote glowingly in support of Nazis,’’ she said.

But some felt it was highly exaggerated to equate the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany and that of Muslims in India. “You are just underestimating what Jews have gone through the Holocaust. I agree though that German Ambassador must have avoided RSS,’’ said a comment on the social media.

The German embassy did not reply to e-mails seeking Lindner’s version but an agency post about the Ambassador’s Twitter handle showed his Nagpur visit had packed in several events, including a ride on the Germany-financed Metro and a visit to a leprosy sensitisation project.

This is the second time a German Ambassador in India has courted controversy. The then envoy Michael Steiner’s sponsorship of a concert by Zubin Mehta on the banks of the Dal Lake in Kashmir was billed as reaching “the hearts of Kashmir’’. But it took place under a lockdown of the city and was restricted to the elite, leading the general manager of the 80-member Bavarian State Orchestra to complain that they were “misled’’ by the German embassy. Instead of being a people’s event, it turned out to be a heavily restricted occasion, he had said.