Sangh Parivar power games aggravate
By Praful Bidwai
Has the Bharatiya Janata Party decided to drop even the pretence of being autonomous of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in organisational matters? Going by the manner in which it chose Rajnath Singh as its president just when Nitin Gadkari was all set to get his second term, that indeed seems to be the case. That sordid drama shows India’s leading opposition party in a totally uncomplimentary light and raises questions about its ability to take on the United Progressive Alliance even at the latter’s most vulnerable moment. The RSS looms over the BJP as its organisational hegemon and master. Three years ago, it imposed Mr Gadkari, an incompetent, Power Point-obsessed, home-grown businessman-cum-management guru, as its president. The mofussil politician from Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region is innocent of the complexities of Hindi heartland politics. He lacks a mass base and is incapable of strategic thinking. Mr Gadkari’s sole qualification was his strong loyalty to the RSS, and the Sangh’s high comfort level with him. Not only is he a Brahmin, like most RSS leaders; he could also be trusted to resist—unlike some RSS nominees to the BJP’s key organisational posts—the temptations of mainstream politics. He has also showered favours upon the RSS through his Purti group of companies.
It’s another matter that Mr Gadkari mishandled every situation he could. In Karnataka and Jharkhand, his ineptitude ensured the BJP’s isolation or likely loss of power. In Uttar Pradesh, he inducted scam-tainted Babu Singh Kushwaha, and handed over election management to the RSS’s Sanjay Joshi, who botched it up. The BJP lost credibility and did badly in the elections.
Mr Gadkari became a liability for the BJP when the Purti scam broke out, and damaging disclosures were made about his pleading for contractors in the controversial Ghosikurd dam project, and his role in allotting Chhattisgarh coal blocks to his friend Ajay Sancheti (since made a Rajya Sabha MP). The party cannot afford this when it’s trying to corner the UPA on corruption and faces elections this year in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Delhi. Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha even accused Mr Gadkari of “auctioning” party tickets. It’s widely rumoured that allegations about his corruption were planted in the media by his party rivals. The RSS certainly believes so.
But so keen was the RSS to give Mr Gadkari a second presidential term that it had the party constitution amended, and got Mr Narendra Modi to accept it in return for a larger national role for himself. Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat also prevailed upon Mr LK Advani, who opposed Mr Gadkari’s continuation citing his own resignation in 1996 after the hawala scam. A day before Mr Gadkari’s scheduled election, income-tax authorities raided 17 companies with investments in the Purti group. That threw everything out of kilter. Mr Gadkari’s reappointment became untenable especially when Mr Advani revived his opposition and got Yashwant Sinha to file presidential nomination papers. Other leaders also felt Mr Gadkari’s continuation might gravely embarrass the BJP if he’s arrested, like Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala was.At Mr Bhagwat’s behest, RSS Number Two Suresh Joshi and joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale did their utmost to lobby for a second Gadkari term, but had to give in to opposition from BJP leaders including Messrs Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu, HN Ananth Kumar and Ram Lal.
The BJP leaders’ hands were strengthened by an intra-RSS turf war between Joshi-Hosabale and Suresh Soni, the Sangh’s main pointsman in the BJP, who bears a grudge towards Mr Gadkari because he unceremoniously sacked his confidant Prabhat Jha as the Madhya Pradesh BJP chief. So much for the discipline and unity for which the RSS is legendarily reputed!
In the early stage of the crisis, Mr Advani first proposed Mr Sinha and then Ms Sushma Swaraj as replacements for Mr Gadkari. But the RSS shot down Mr Sinha, a former Socialist and late entrant into the BJP, as a “rank outsider”. It also ruled out Ms Swaraj not because it has something specific against her, but because she was Mr Advani’s nominee. The RSS unambiguously told Mr Advani who the boss is, as it had done in 2005 by removing him as BJP president following his remarks praising Jinnah, and in 2009 by asking him to step down as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Eventually, Suresh Joshi told Mr Gadkari the game was up; he should propose Mr Rajnath Singh as his successor. Mr Singh, a Thakur from Uttar Pradesh, is also close to the RSS. He promptly displayed his loyalty by attacking home minister Sushilkumar Shinde for his statement on “Hindu terrorism”, and by declaring that “no Hindu can ever be a terrorist”. Mr Singh has threatened that Parliament would not be allowed to function unless Mr Shinde apologises for his remarks. The whole episode has sullied the BJP’s image and highlighted internal factionalism. From “a party with a difference”, it has turned into “a party with differences”, with growing suspicion between Mr Advani and his one-time protégé Jaitley, and open rivalry between the latter and Mr Rajnath Singh, and between Mr Singh and Mr Modi (whom Mr Singh had dropped from the BJP’s parliamentary board).
Worse, the BJP has shown itself to be totally subservient to the RSS, an unelected body devoted to Hindutva sectarianism. The RSS has strengthened its hold over the BJP as its ideological mentor, political master and organisational gatekeeper and arbiter. It controls the party through appointments to all its key central and state-level organising positions and has the last word on the choice of office-bearers. It ensures that the BJP won’t break with rank communalism and obscurantism.
Nothing illustrates this more clearly than the BJP’s deplorable characterisation of Mr Shinde’s remarks about Hindutva-inspired terrorist activities (granted, he was wrong to use the term “Hindu terrorism”) as “a downright insult” to “India’s spiritual, cultural and civilisational heritage”. This implies that the nation is insulted if a Hindutva link is found to terrorism, but not if innocent Muslims are falsely charged, arrested, harassed and tortured in these very cases. It is perverse to argue that Mr Shinde has played into Pakistan’s hands by making this statement. Now, the National Investigation Agency has established definite links between individuals connected with Sangh Parivar outfits and numerous bomb blasts: Malegaon in September 2006, Samjhauta Express in February 2007, Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad in May 2007, Ajmer dargah in October 2007 and Malegaon again in September 2008. Last December, it arrested four persons for these explosions and has filed two chargesheets in the Samjhauta case. One only has to read the home ministry’s Monthly Report Card of January 10 to see that these charges are prima facie credible. The Sangh Parivar simply cannot deny its close connections with people like Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Aseemanand, Col. Prasad Shrikant Purohit, Sandeep Dange, Ramji Kalsangara, Sunil Joshi and Indresh Kumar, a member of the RSS’s national executive committee. Joshi is believed to have been killed by his Right-wing accomplices in 2007. The Madhya Pradesh police have just recovered the murder weapon. As the net closes in, the RSS is getting desperate—to the point of getting the BJP to disrupt Parliament’s budget session and generally create mayhem, as Rajnath Singh has threatened to do, thus making a mockery of democracy.
Where does all this leave Narendra Modi, who is looking to play a larger political role after his third win in Gujarat? Does it make sense to talk about India’s next big political fight as a Rahul Gandhi-Modi contest, as many in the media are doing? Mr Modi has certainly emerged pre-eminent among the BJP’s second-generation leaders, but Mr Singh’s ascendancy to the presidency has complicated matters for him. Mr Singh has his own ambitions to India’s top job. More important, the RSS, to which Mr Singh is loyal, doesn’t trust Mr Modi despite his violent version of Hindutva. He is too much of an arrogant egotist and reckless individualist to be given charge of party or government. He could destroy the RSS and turn the national BJP into a one-man dictatorship, as he has done in Gujarat.
Many in the BJP and the National Democratic Alliance too don’t trust Mr Modi. So the race for the NDA’s Prime Ministerial nomination is wide open. Yashwant Sinha has tried to influence its outcome by proposing Mr Modi. (IPA Service)