How your thoughts can be influenced when you are not thinking!

Before I start, let me make an admission - I have used the terms RSS/Hindutva and secular quite informally to describe specific views. Hope this does not offend you one way or the other.
One of the charges that the ‘hindutva’ camp (as well as many others) level against the 'seculars' in this country is that their values are not really free of religious thought, but are rather closely aligned to Christian values. We can not dismiss this charge lightly as the seeds of secularism was nurtured in a culture where Christianity was the de facto religion. I don’t know if it is too early to announce that the tides are turning, but I have some evidence to show the influence of RSS thinking in the ‘secular’ response to Mohan Bhagwat statements on Mother Teresa.
Mohan Bhagwat mentioned in one of his speeches that Mother Teresa did indeed help the destitute but she had an ulterior motive to convert them. According to him, this motive made her service less selfless and hence somewhat lower in value. This statement captured the national attention for a couple of days - on the national TV, social media as well as elsewhere. In these times of extreme transient global amnesia, two days is a lot. SRK movies cross 100 crores and get taken away from multiplexes in less time than that! Many came to the defense Mother Teresa, denying any motive of religious conversion. It was as if all of them agreed to the RSS chief’s argument that any intention to convert would have lowered the value of her services.

As a Christian, this conversation would have made Mother turn in her grave rather violently.(It is as well that the discussion ended in two days so that she could go back to resting in peace.) What is wrong with this line of defense? I can think of two aspects. Firstly, Conversion is not an ulterior motive of a missionary, it is the stated objective. Secondly, according to a Christian missionary, converting a person is not a crime, it is the noblest of services that can be done to a person. Why did the defenders of Mother miss this? The only explanation that I can think of is that they had subconsciously (I think) bought into the RSS/hindutva view on conversion. If so, now the hindutva camp can take pride that their values also can influence secular thinking. If they really want to take pride in that, that is.

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