Former IPS officer M Nageswara Rao, who briefly headed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as its interim director during the agency’s tumultuous phase in 2018, is now set to take a plunge into electoral politics as the president of the fledgling Sarvajan Sanatan Party (SSP). Founded in 2021, the party, which has recently been revived, is now looking to contest the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due in February 2027.Rao, who had long been associated with the RSS’ ideology, now accuses the Sangh and BJP of allegedly betraying the constituency they claim to represent. In an interview with The Indian Express, he calls the BJP-RSS proponents of “pseudo-Hindutva”, attacks the governments led by Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath, and outlines his party’s positions on reservations, education and healthcare. Excerpts:Advertisement* After your retirement from the IPS in 2020, you have been publicly voicing your political views. Why enter electoral politics now? And how did you come to lead a party founded in 2021?Even today, I have neither political interest nor aptitude. When I was made (the SSP’s) national president, I had not even informed my family. My wife, daughter and son laughed and said, “You are a politician!”But there are issues that need to be addressed. Our Constitution discriminates against Hindus by denying them fundamental rights available to religious minorities. Even (former Janata Party MP) Syed Shahabuddin, who was a prominent Muslim voice, introduced a private member’s Bill in 1995 seeking removal of the word “minority” from Article 30.AdvertisementI have been raising these issues for years, including when I was in service. Whenever I had the opportunity, I brought them to the notice of the authorities, including the Prime Minister and Home Minister.In 2023, I met Jyotirmath Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati. Subsequently, he told me that merely speaking about these issues would achieve nothing and that politicians would have to act.In the past five or six months, a party registered in 2021, which had been dormant, was revived. Its leaders were looking for someone to lead it. On the advice of my Guruji, I was approached. I initially refused, but they virtually forced me to take over as national president. In fact, they made me president even before I became a member. I see it almost as divine intervention.* You have been closely associated with the RSS-BJP’s ideological stances. Yet you are now attacking them. What has changed?I had been associated with the RSS-BJP since my student days. I was an ABVP member in 1981. I know Mohan Bhagwat and his predecessors, and many senior leaders of the organisation. I associated with them because they opposed pseudo-secularism and promised to restore equal rights to Hindus. But look at their record. They have been in power at the Centre for 12 years and in several states for decades. Have they liberated temples from government control? Have they ensured equal rights for Hindus?Just as the Congress and Left-liberal parties use secularism as a slogan while practising pseudo-secularism, the RSS and BJP use Hindutva and Hindu identity as slogans to fool Hindus and get votes.I have examined this in detail in my book A Quiver Full of Hindu Arrows. The RSS-BJP represent pseudo-Hindutva. They have no concern for India, Sanatana Dharma, Hindutva or Hindus. They want power, and through power, they get pelf and enjoy it.Pseudo-secularism and pseudo-Hindutva are two sides of the same anti-India and anti-Hindu coin.* What specifically do you believe the BJP has failed to do for Hindus?Take the issue of temples. More than two lakh temples, around 20 lakh acres of temple land and annual collection of Rs 50,000 crore are under government control. How many mosques or churches are controlled by secular governments? None.Even the Yogi Adityanath government took over the Banke Bihari temple in Mathura through legislation. In 2019, the BJP government in Uttarakhand took over 55 Char Dham temples. Following protests, that decision was subsequently modified.What kind of secularism is this? A secular government has no business running Hindu temples.Then there is the question of constitutional rights. The government has amended the Constitution several times but has not addressed discrimination against Hindus under Articles 25 to 30.* You have also made allegations over the Ram temple?Look at the Ram Mandir. The RSS-BJP are actually stealing Hindu money. Under the Adityanath regime, they have been looting the Ram Mandir.Take beef exports. Uttar Pradesh is the country’s largest beef-exporting state, and India is the world’s second-largest beef exporter. Nearly four crore cattle are slaughtered annually for exports. How can Narendra Modi, Mohan Bhagwat, RSS, BJP and Adityanath claim to be Hindu while allowing this? I call them Hindu drohis — traitors to Hindus.* Your party has received support from organisations such as Rashtriya Savarna Samaj Ekta Manch, while your UP president Jugul Kishore Tiwari has spoken against caste-based reservations. Is opposition to reservations your party’s official position?We do not believe in identity-based considerations, whether religious or caste-based.We support limited reservations for people who genuinely deserve them — for example, orphans or those facing serious socio-economic disadvantages. But reservations should not be based simply on caste identity. We call this Yukta Arakshan — reservation for the deserving.Today, becoming backward is incentivised by the government. Earlier, castes competed to claim higher social status. Now everyone wants to be classified as backward. Is this how we build a modern India?We are also completely opposed to the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, already existed and served the purpose. The SC/ST Act has set one caste against another and created permanent social divisions.We are similarly opposed to the UGC regulations that encourage divisions based on caste. Educational institutions should be places for learning and creating knowledge, not promoting caste identities.* Beyond Hindutva and religious issues, what are your party’s proposals for the UP voters?We have four fundamental pillars, which we describe as the four legs of Kamadhenu, representing prosperity.The first is free, compulsory, quality education for everyone. It is shameful that so many Indians remain barely literate. Go to a government school in a village and ask a Class 7 or 8 student to solve a basic numerical problem or write a sentence in their mother tongue. Many cannot do it. What kind of education are we providing?The second is free, quality healthcare. Government hospitals have deteriorated while private healthcare has become prohibitively expensive. A single illness can financially destroy an entire family. A country that cannot provide affordable healthcare to everyone cannot call itself a democracy.We talk about becoming a $5 trillion economy, but what is the point if the rich become richer and the poor become poorer?The third is livelihood, which goes beyond employment. If the people of Uttar Pradesh give us an opportunity, every student completing Class 10 will receive free training in a skill of their choice, whether masonry, butchery or computers. They can continue their education alongside it. Skills create confidence, economic independence and respect for the dignity of labour.The fourth is our civilisational identity. Pakistan and Bangladesh have embraced Islamic civilisation, but India remains a Sanatan civilisation. If we do not preserve that identity, we risk becoming a geographical extension of Pakistan and Bangladesh.