However, pages later, we meet none other than the discredited India-phobic Angana Chatterjee becoming the authority with respect to Saraswati Sisu Vidya Mandirs — the schools run by the Sangh whose ‘Asian Age’ 2003 article is used in an endorsing way. Chatterjee argues that the ‘affordability and their emphasis on imparting cultural values to children provide a congenial space for mobilizing young and impressionable minds into the ideology of Hindutva.’ (p.133).

So the author herself concludes that ‘expanding the educational apparatus after the Super Cyclone, keeping in mind future returns, therefore, was a political masterstroke on the part of the RSS.’ (pp.133-4).

And the interviews with school teachers presented centre around ‘Samskaras’ reinforcing the allegations made by Chatterjee.

Let us leave apart the relevant fact that Angana Chatterjee is a highly prejudiced Hindu-hating academic who was actively involved in attempts to stop the funding of Sangh Seva activities by NRIs through the IDRF.

What is important is the way these schools have delivered quality education in a very affordable manner through the dedication of the teachers who work for far less salary than government school teachers. Under the title ‘Sangh schools score high in Orissa’, The Indian Express report (01-July-2009) points out that Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandirs (SVM) have produced 44 of the top 102 students in the state in the High School exams with 7 of the top 10 ranks from SVMs.

The report also speak of ‘over 11,000 Acharyas and Gurumas (teachers) in 739 SVMs across the state who live a no-frills life to teach 1.8 lakh students from kindergarten to Class XII for a pittance’.

A 2010 report by Times of India (20 June) under the title Saraswati Vidya Mandir schools clean sweep toppers' list, mentions the maximum ranks in the top 10 list, including the top five in the state, going to students of SVM. The report goes on to point out that as many as 55 students of SVM in the best 100 list show a pass percentage of 98.58 as against 71.41 of government schools.

Even the state mass education minister, who is a non-BJP politician, admitted the better performance of SVM schools. According to a 2010 report, as many as 12,000 teachers teach across 793 SVM schools. In 2018, in the Jharsuguda district of the state alone, of the top 12 rank holders, four belonged to SVM schools including the district topper.

So here you have a school system that provides, for decades, one of the most affordable and good educational services in terms of even the ‘secular’ State board syllabus through dedicated teachers who work for lesser than their governmental counterparts. And all one sees into it are ‘future returns’ and a ‘political masterstroke’?

In the case of Gujarat earthquake relief again, she acknowledges that Sangh has provided immediate and exemplary relief services. But this time, she allows without scrutiny the charges of sectarian discrimination against the Sangh. And the sources for these charges are clearly prejudiced against the Sangh — Kuldip Nayar (in an article in 2001), by a senior Congress party leader in 2012 and another report in the Islamist anti-Sangh magazine Milli Gazette. However, if one goes through the actual reports from mostly neutral sources, these allegations seem to be a well-calculated after-construction.

For example this is what an India Today report said about the relief work by the RSS: