The RSS and Modi – Two Articles – After the truth-shower

Saba Naqvi; and P. Raman

It is the centenary of the RSS next year, and it is an organisation that plays the long game. Towards that end, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a great enabler of their ideological agenda. But now that the BJP has crashed in the nation’s two most populous States, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, there is a realisation in the mothership that the party (which is the political wing of the RSS) has managed to retain power, albeit at the head of a coalition, only because of a surprise heist of 20 seats from Odisha.

In such a scenario, the recent utterances of the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat cannot be brushed aside as empty moral posturing or as an attempt to quickly occupy the opposition space. It must be read as a clear message to Modi, and it could be the beginning of a change in the power balance within the BJP and in its equation with the RSS. The RSS chief said, among other things, that a true sevak does not have arrogance. Given that the 2024 campaign was reduced to a message about “Modi ki guarantee” and that a once voluble party with multiple power centres is now a one-man cult, using the word “arrogance” was a clear signal from the head of the Sangh Parivar.

It was reinforced in a signed piece in the RSS magazine Organiser by Ratan Sharda, author of several books on the Sangh. He critiqued fighting from all 543 seats on Modi’s name as “self-defeating”. There were other scathing lines in the article, such as: “Targets are achieved by hard work on the field, not sharing posters and selfies on social media. Since they [BJP leaders] were happy in their bubble, enjoying the glow reflected from Modiji’s aura, they were not listening to voices on the streets.”….

The RSS Supremo’s Outbursts, a Denial By ‘Sources’ and the History

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, in his customary address to a workers’ camp at Nagpur, said the true sevaks perform public work without arrogance (ahankar), causing no harm to others. Describing the just concluded election contest as “bitter”, he said that “decorum was not maintained during the campaign”.

Bhagwat said: “The kind of things were said, the way the two sides castigated each other, the way no one cared about social divisions being created because of what was being done, and for no reasons the Sangh was drawn into it.… Untruths were spread with the use of technology… How will the country function like this?”

The RSS chief’s outburst came as a bomb shell to the BJP establishment. It opened a new front for the leadership, already beleaguered by a stronger opposition and determined allies like the Telugu Desam Party. Given the RSS hierarchy’s complex system, an outright retraction was impossible. More over, the BJP’s relationship with Nagpur had deteriorated during the past few years.

And barely 10 days after Bhagwat’s outbursts, RSS outfits like the ABVP, Shiksha Bachao Andolan of Dinanath Batra and another affiliate Shikshasanskriti Utthan Nyas came out to blame the BJP government for mishandling the NEET exam. They openly criticised the National Testing Agency.

RSS outfits have been lying low ever since Nagpur – under an deal with Narendra Modi and Amit Shah way back in 2015 – had told affiliated organisations to hold back from protesting….

https://janataweekly.org/the-rss-and-modi-two-articles/

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