New son of the Sangh?

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New son of the Sangh?

Between us| Pankaj Vohra

July 11

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_880400,0015002200000017.htm

 

"Golwalkar, the second RSS chief, had advocated the need to change

every individual through ideological impact in order to change

society. Those who succeeded him, notably Balasaheb Deoras and Rajju

Bhaiya, laid emphasis on the transformation of society through

political means."

 

A high-powered meeting of the RSS and some of its allied

organisations in Raipur over the weekend has sparked off speculation

over whether the VHP's proposal to align with a new political party,

which would be totally committed to the Hindutva cause, will be

accepted. The VHP has been demanding a new political party to

replace the BJP and some of its leaders have already indicated to

senior RSS office-bearers that they would find it difficult to

interact with the BJP in its present form.

 

The RSS, too, has serious reservations about the increased

politicisation of the BJP till the Mandal level. Despite assurances

from top BJP leaders that the party would return to its ideological

constituency, the RSS is attempting to determine whether it will be

able to do so. The aim behind the meeting was to see how things

stand for the future in the context of BJP leaders who may have

contributed significantly in the past but seem to have run out of

steam now.

 

At another level, the debate within the RSS is whether the party

should return to the Golwalkar school of thought or continue with

the Balasaheb Deoras-Rajju Bhaiya philosophy. Golwalkar, the second

RSS chief, had advocated the need to change every individual through

ideological impact in order to change society. Those who succeeded

him, notably Balasaheb Deoras and Rajju Bhaiya, laid emphasis on the

transformation of society through political means. Their line was

that the BJP should pursue power and, thereafter, use it to change

society.

 

However, the present RSS functionaries feel that despite the BJP

being in power for six years, not much was achieved in this area. So

much so that the BJP got a drubbing during the recent Lok Sabha

polls and is now in the opposition. The top RSS leadership,

including its chief K.S. Sudarshan, has indicated that of the two

streams of thought, Golwalkar's philosophy seems to have survived

while the other has failed to meet its objective. Therefore, the

Sangh has to decide once and for all whether the BJP, in its current

state, can carry forward the Golwalkar agenda, especially since it

is split right till the lowest level by factionalism and does not

enjoy the confidence of grassroots RSS volunteers who feel let down

by its deviation from the

Hindutva ideology.

 

The RSS is also worried that it was becoming increasingly difficult

to get younger people associated with the outfit, more so because

its political wing, the BJP, had been dithering on the question of

basic ideology and not done anything to promote it. The anger

against the BJP is also pronounced since, in order to promote it,

the RSS had minimised the role of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi

Parishad (ABVP), its student wing, the VHP and even the Bharatiya

Mazdoor Sangh whose leader Dattopant Thengadi is a strong critic of

former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The three organisations

were told to play down their activities so that the BJP could have

the freedom to implement the tasks assigned to it.

 

However, with the BJP becoming a coterie-driven outfit and its

senior leaders engaging more in power politics than promoting

ideology, the Sangh's message could not reach the grassroots. Both

Vajpayee and L.K. Advani are being held responsible for this by a

section of the Sangh. Their repeated assurances of upholding the RSS

agenda seems to be finding few takers among top RSS functionaries,

who are of the view that even if the RSS has to sacrifice many

governments in order to promote its ideological moorings, it is

ready to do so.

 

The explanation given by BJP leaders that they had never given up on

the party's core issues but were compelled by demands of real

politik to put them on the backburner has not convinced too many

people in the RSS. At Nagpur some days ago, the troika of Sudarshan,

H.V. Seshadri and Mohan Bhagwat had stressed the need to focus on

ideological issues.

 

In this context, a resolution passed at the Mumbai meeting of the

national executive endorsing former HRD Minister Murli Manohar

Joshi's policy on education and culture assumes significance. But

the BJP leaders, who were to promote several issues during their

week-long agitational programme from July 6 onwards, are content

with making occasional passing references to the `detoxification' of

education launched by HRD Minister Arjun Singh, essentially because

of power politics with the BJP where Joshi is an `outsider'.

 

On their part, both Vajpayee and Advani realise that the rediscovery

of the virtues of Golwalkar's philosophy by senior RSS functionaries

could spell trouble for them. A challenge to their political

supremacy for the first time since Deen Dayal Upadhyay died under

mysterious circumstances in February 1968 is from the Sangh itself —

not the Congress or others. Therefore, the `moderate and secular'

Vajpayee and `iron man' Advani have been going out of their way to

appease the Sangh. Vajpayee even talked of how Jana Sangh founder

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, whose 103rd birth anniversary was observed

last week, was killed. However, he did not clarify why he did not

institute a commission of inquiry if this was his belief.

 

The Raipur meet is significant and crucial in more ways than one

because it will determine even the future of the RSS, seen by its

opponents as a closed and fascist outfit. It will also determine the

future of the BJP as to whether it should go on the path of the

Congress in terms of power politics or return to its original

saffron agenda of the Jana Sangh days. At stake is Sudarshan's own

leadership as also the future of Vajpayee and Advani and the BJP

itself. Though unlikely, if the RSS gives its nod to a new political

party, then a new chapter may be opened in Indian politics. It will

be the victory of ideology over realpolitik. Between us.