Nationalist flavor

According to Indian newspapers, Amma is mainly supported by 3 political parties which are Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP).

All of them are part of the Sangh Parivar, a federation of nationalist political parties, aimed at advertising Hindutva, an ideology that promotes the cultural supremacy of India, wishing to establish Hinduism as the state religion.

Speaking about politics is always a tricky subject, it is more delicate in India. It seems like religion is highly mingled with politics. Conflicts between Hindus, Christians and Muslims are rather destructive. Murders, beatings, rape, destruction of worship places, desecration, propaganda, insults, defamation,... It is hard to know right from wrong in such a context.
Obviously Hindu nationalists feel invaded by foreign cultures and religions. They do everything they can to preserve the glory of India. For their part, the Christians and the Muslims claim that the poor switch to their religions to escape the overwhelming dominance of the ruling castes. The parties and religions make extensive use of humanitarian work and volunteering to reach the poor and bring them to conversion. In such a situation, criticizing a Hindu spiritual leader is automatically considered as an act of treason, an insult to Hinduism as a whole.

As a major Hindu leader, Amma doesn't escape the rule but some voices in India claim that she is too close to the nationalists' wings. There seems to be mutual friendship between her and the extremist parties. In 2003, her 50th birthday celebration was exclusively organised by nationalist parties volunteers, the VHP activits.

In September 2013, during her 60th birthday celebration, the nationalist candidate for Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, delivered a campaign speech, saying that "India could be the guru of the world". At this occasion, he has also been invited to inaugurate several welfare projects of Amrita University. He makes extensive use of his devotion toward Amma and his admiration of Vivekananda, to rally Hindu voters. Yet, Narendra Modi's candidature is not unanimously acclaimed in India by reason of his religious extremism, which was particularly pointed during the Muslim massacres of 2002 in the state of Gurajat, that he governs since 2001. The Congress party, which represents the Indian left wing invested by the Gandhi family, preferred to boycott Amma's birthday, just like the communist party.