Why BJP-RSS relations are smoother than ever

A more profound and underlying reason for the RSS's keenness not to rock the Narendra Modi boat was because unlike A B Vajpayee and L K Advani, Modi managed to consolidate the Hindus like never before, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.

The Rashtriya Swayam-sevak Sangh's executive committee, scheduled to meet in Bengaluru from March 15, called off the annual event because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but the Sangh released three resolutions, which were on the agenda.

Read in tandem with the recent statements from Suresh Bhaiyya Joshi, the RSS general secretary and the sarsanghachalak’s deputy, the views and comments bespoke the present state of the Sangh's relationship with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The BJP is the RSS's political progeny but not necessarily the family favourite because of the vicissitude that the equation was subject to: Whenever the BJP ruled the country, it apparently acquired an upper hand over the parent, but in the Opposition, the tables turned in the RSS's favour.

The resolutions on the Ram temple's 'reconstruction', the invalidation of Article 35A and the reading down of Article 370, and the amended Citizenship Act praised the Narendra Modi government, but with a cautionary tale for the BJP.

It was asked to 'convince' the Opposition that the CAA was in the nation's interest. It was an admission that the statute had breached the polity and the ruling party did nothing to heal.

How did the BJP and the Sangh interpret the nuanced articulations from the progenitor?

A veteran swayamsevak said: "The relationship with the BJP cannot be smoother than now, despite periodic provocations from the BJP. Like it or not, the RSS is so completely identified with the BJP that it is blamed for the BJP's reversals.

"On its part, the Sangh only wants to work in a spirit of consensus with the BJP."

Mohanrao Bhagwat, the sarsanghachalak, reset the ground rules governing the kinship in 2014, when the BJP first won a majority on its own.

"In NDA I (the first tenure of the National Democratic Alliance rule at the Centre), the RSS was convinced that the BJP was naive and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government needed to be micro-managed," an RSS insider said.

K S Sudarshan, the RSS chief of the day, was eight years younger than Vajpayee, 'but that didn’t deter him from functioning as a super PM at times, bouncing off unworkable ideas," the insider said.

A BJP functionary, familiar with the RSS, said Bhagwat was from the 'Balasaheb Deoras' lineage and that made him a '100 per cent political animal'.

Balasaheb, or Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras, was the third RSS chief -- after K B Hedgewar and M S Golwalkar -- who discovered and groomed BJP leaders L K Advani and Kushabhau Thakre, among others.

"He was a political pragmatist who tried hard to save the government of the Janata Party (with which the Bharatiya Jana Sangh had merged) when its fall seemed imminent (in 1979).

"Deoras informed the Socialist leaders (of the Janata Party) that Jana Sangh representatives in the government would dissociate themselves from the RSS if that could save the government. But things went too far," the functionary recalled.

The RSS insider said: "Bhagwat learned from the Janata Party and Vajpayee's experiences and decided that the RSS must not occupy the Opposition space.

"If the Modi government fulfils six of the 10 items on the Sangh’s agenda and leaves out four, it's good enough for Bhagwat. Take the case of R K Singh (the power minister).

"As home secretary in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance or UPA government, he started the campaign against the Sangh over 'saffron terror'. The RSS was unhappy when he became a minister. But Bhagwat did not make an issue of it."

Bhagwat's association with Modi went back a long way, to the days when his father, Madhukar Rao Bhagwat, was the pranth (provincial) pracharak of Gujarat and Modi was a fledgeling pracharak, who was nurtured by Bhagwat senior and Lakshmanrao Inamdar.

In an e-book called Jyotipunj, Modi wrote of Bhagwat senior, "Some of the people we meet leave a lasting impression on us, but with Madhukar Raoji, it seemed as if he had entered us. Like sugar in milk."

A more profound and underlying reason for the RSS's keenness not to rock the Modi boat was because unlike Vajpayee and Advani, Modi managed to consolidate the Hindus like never before.

"In 2014, when the BJP crossed the 272-mark, the Sangh realised that the minority factor was neutralised and the Hindus could never be ignored ever again.

"The Sachar (committee) narrative was over and an era in which Rahul Gandhi would publicly display a sacred thread and (Arvind) Kejriwal would recite the Hanuman Chalisa had dawned. Under Modi, the BJP will never let go of this Hindu catchment basis and the Sangh knows that," an RSS source said.

So, while the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) continued to be a protector of the RSS's economic orthodoxy, the government bought peace with the outfit by inducting the former SJM convenor, S Gurumurthy, into the Reserve Bank of India's board and dropping Nachiket Mor from the panel because of Mor’s alleged allegiance to Bill and Melinda Gates, the swadeshi lobby’s bugbear.

In attempting a 'balancing' act, the RSS has leaned more towards the BJP than its other constituents.