Mohan Bhagwat bets against widespread Sangh disenchantment
By Arun Srivastava
Senior RSS leaders have conveyed their annoyance in no uncertain terms to their chief Mohan Bhagwat about the functioning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged him to look for a replacement in the greater interest of the BJP and the philosophical and political mission of the organisation.
For long, these leaders were feeling disenchanted with Modi’s political approach to national issues. But they refrained from making their criticism too public, and stuck to the line espoused by an RSS editorial of Organiser in May this year, wherein they hoped that Modi will transform and act in a more rational manner. But that did not happen. Modi’s handling of the assembly elections to the five states simply strengthened their belief that under his leadership the BJP had lost the correct political track.
These leaders also hold that Modi sidelining the senior leaders has eroded the credibility of the RSS to a large extent. They feel that the RSS should have taken preventive measures and directed him not to resort to such diversionary politics. With Modi losing his charisma and image, the issue of deliberate humiliation of senior leaders by Modi has once again emerged in a significant manner.
Some of them obliquely accuse Bhagwat for not pulling up Modi enough. It was expected that following the May editorial of Organiser, Modi would have acted in a more judicious manner and allowed space to the state satraps. But he preferred to project himself as the sole public face of the BJP for these elections.
Modi’s obsession for his self-image and craving to project himself as the only leader to bail out the BJP in times of crisis has not been liked by these leaders. Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh, Shivraj Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh and Vasundhara Raje Scindia in Rajasthan were deliberately ignored by Modi and Amit Shah, notwithstanding these leaders never posed a serious threat to his leadership. The primary reason for Modi to neglect a leader like Vasundhara was that she was not willing to play the role of a subservient. Modi, who suffers from a deep complex, cannot stand a person with self-respect.
At the pressure of his think tanks and advisers, Modi has somewhat dialed down the self-projection, but much irreparable damage has been inflicted already. Sources maintain that his recalcitrant and arrogant attitude has alienated the grassroot RSS cadres. Amit Shah, while distributing tickets, had consciously ignored the demand of the state RSS leaders to accommodate some of its candidates.
The hostility of the senior RSS leaders is also having an impact at the ground level. Though the lower rung cadres parrot the “everything is fine and the BJP candidates would win the election” party line, a little scratching of the surface brings out the truth. Just as in 2009, in this election too, the RSS cadres would prefer selective voting. These RSS leaders are also not convinced of Modi ensuring the win of the BJP at the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
MG Vaidya, senior ideologue from RSS, had stoked a major controversy in 2021 by revealing that the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was behind Ram Jethmalani’s demand for BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s resignation. As usual, the RSS distanced itself from Vaidya’s revelation, but this act of looking over the shoulder proved disastrous for the party in later days. Almost all the senior BJP leaders are not pulling well with him. But it is the fear of his vengeful reaction that discourages them to speak out publicly.
Though RSS leadership distances itself from Vaidya observation, he on his part continued to stick to his stand. He said: “While both LK Advani and Gadkari have publicly stated that they don’t have Prime Ministerial ambitions, but I haven’t read anywhere that Narendra Modi has denied reports of his ambition to become the Prime Minister.” He said: “It is my opinion and because Jethmalani has combined two things, demanding Gadkari’s resignation and making Narendra Modi as PM, I think that the needle of suspicion goes to Gujarat.”
Modi loyalist Venkaiah Naidu had reacted: “I am also a RSS swayamsevak, with my own experience of 40 years RSS has not expressed such views, it is not an authorised opinion of RSS. Let me make it very clear. To my knowledge and understanding as a swayamsevak, I also know how RSS functions and as a BJP functionary I don’t agree with reported things.”
However, in the entire episode, the deafening silence of Mohan Bhagwat has been quite significant. In 2013, it was the RSS which selected Modi as its prime ministerial favourite. It is indeed debatable whether he lived up to RSS faith in him. The fact is he always tried to cut BJP loose from the stranglehold of the RSS and emerge as the definitive rightist party. This is significant, given the BJP is ideologically controlled by the RSS which sends its officers to the BJP to keep it in check, provides money and, crucially, its cadres, especially during elections.
Modi might not have succeeded in his mission to sideline the senior RSS leaders if chief Mohan Bhagwat had asked him to refrain. L K Advani was removed for the comments he wrote on the Visitors’ Book at the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah on 4 June 2005. It read:“There are many people who leave an inerasable stamp on history. But there are very few who actually create history. Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah was one such rare individual.” Certainly, this went against the RSS doctrine of ultra-Hindutva and spread hatred against Muslims.
There is no denying that Bhagwat has produced a Frankenstein’s monster in Modi which has even endangered the existence of the BJP, the political wing of the RSS. Though most of the RSS leaders were not amused to see Modi build up a staggering personality cult, Bhagwat was not at all concerned. He was not even worried of the BJP losing its base. In February 2020, Suresh Joshi (“Bhaiyyaji”) cautioned that BJP was not “synonymous” with the Hindu community; making it explicit that it was the RSS which alone could speak on the Hindus’ behalf, but his warning did not have any impact on Modi. In fact, Bhaiyyaji was divested of his responsibility.
Hitler and Mussolini did not cover fascism under a ‘spiritual’ or ‘cultural’ garb, but Modi practiced fascism under the cover of Hindutva and nationalism. The strategy suited RSS in giving shape to its mission of turning India into a Hindu Rashtra, but this enabled Modi to project himself as a taller leader than Mohan Bhagwat. He had hijacked the pet slogan of RSS.
Modi continues to resort to divisive politics, even though he and Bhagwat share a good rapport based on mutual respect. For his own political gain, Bhagwat patronised Modi and even ignored his wrongdoings. When six months back, some of the top BJP leaders had approached Bhagwat with the suggestion to put a check on the whimsical acts of Modi, he ignored the warning. On the contrary, he worked out a consensus within RSS in Modi’s favour despite several top leaders opposed to the idea of the prime minister leading the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections for a third consecutive time.
BJP leaders confide that Modi is a major threat to not only the BJP but also to the RSS. While state leaders have started deserting the party even in the midst of the assembly elections, some seniors are getting ready to quit after December 3, the day the results for the five state elections are announced. Meanwhile, Bhagwat continuing to hold his ground and expressing his trust in Modi, saying he’s “remained rooted in the Sangh ideology,” has endangered the RSS. This is for the first time in the history of RSS that its chief has given precedence to its legislative leader over the organization itself.
“The problem with RSS is that it is wary of taking risks and you can’t be in politics without taking risks,” a former general secretary said. Following this dictum, RSS is riding on Modi’s shoulder to accomplish its mission. The RSS is convinced that political power is necessary for the growth of the organisation and achieving its goal of creating a muscular, Hindu-dominant India. According to Bhagwat, only Modi can deliver. But at the same time, RSS leadership is scared of Rahul Gandhi’s counter-narrative. Amidst this lurking shadow, the RSS leaders lament that it could not accomplish its objective of reaching out to over 6 lakh villages in five years. (IPA Service)