Their idea of India: What Mohan Bhagwat's speech says about RSS's thinking

Shake awake a supporter of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at 3 a.m. and ask him what the RSS thinks of politics.
His visceral, at once outraged and contemptuous, response will be: “The RSS is a socio-cultural organisation. It does not involve itself in party politics”.

That said, the Vijayadashami speeches of all Sarsanghachalaks, the chief of the RSS, are important manifestos of the RSS. 

Even more so when its political front, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is in power. 

“Overall, the RSS’s position on all social-political and contemporary issues is reflected in this speech. The message is for the volunteers as well as the society. The RSS speaks through the mouth of the Sarsanghchalak on this day,” said a Sangh follower, explaining why the speech is so important.

This year, Sarsanghachalak Mohan Bhagwat’s speech reflected not just the institutional position of the organisation and its frontal wings to challenges facing India; but Bhagwat’s own concerns about the country.
 

When he took over as the chief of the RSS, Bhagwat was just 59, the youngest Sarsanghchalak the RSS has had. The organisation was facing multiple challenges: the BJP had been defeated in 2004 and 2009; the Ramjanmabhumi project was going nowhere; then RSS chief K Sudarshan’s health was failing and the Vishva Hindu Parishad under Ashok Singhal needed fresh blood — which was clamouring for a place in the sun, led by Pravin Togadiya.

Interestingly, for all the Sangh Parivar railing about dynastic rule, it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi alone who can claim to take the credit for reaching where he has without any family support. Mohan Bhagwat was born into a family that had strong RSS roots: Grandfather Nanasaheb was an associate of founder KB Hedgewar, father Madhukarrao was a pracharak in Gujarat, and mother Malati was a member of the RSS’s women’s wing. Bhagwat followed his father into seva. He trained to be a veterinarian, quit and plunged full-time into Sangh work in Akola and Wardha and later Bihar, becoming Sarkarawah (general secretary) in 2000. He was considered accessible and well networked.

This was the era of the first BJP-dominated government in India, led by Atal Bihari Vajapayee. Despite its claims to being a socio-cultural organisation, the RSS’s ambitions about reshaping India via influencing politics, got new impetus. This was met with pushback from sections of the BJP which, having seen its strength at two MPs, had learnt humility the hard way. The clashes between Dattopant Thengadi, founder of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, and the Vajpayee government became common knowledge. Sudarshan, not unnaturally, supported Thengadi. When RSS office-bearers met in Nagpur in March 2009 to select a Sarkaryawah, since as Bhagwat had completed his third term, they were in for a surprise. RSS ideologue Mohan Vaidya, who was the election manager, recalled to a reporter: “I was about to initiate the process of the election of Sarkaryawah when Sudarshanji stopped me. He took the microphone, said that he was not keeping well, and proposed Mohan Bhagwat’s name for the post of sarsanghchalak.”

Change, in an organisation like the RSS, is slow in coming but much has changed, not all of it sartorial. It was Bhagwat (with Narendra Modi following his lead) who announced 75 as the retirement age for office-bearers. Trousers were considered alternatives to khaki shorts. The RSS publicly dissociated itself from the slogan of “Congress-mukt Bharat” and invited dyed-in-the-wool Congressman Pranab Mukherji to Nagpur.

In September last year, the RSS held a first-of-its-kind public outreach event in New Delhi, where Bhagwat delivered three lectures, ostensibly to clear up misunderstandings about the organisation. He was at pains to point out then that the RSS did not influence government policy in any way. But his Vijayadashami address in 2018, ahead of the general elections in 2019, was overtly political. While clarifying that the RSS does not involve itself in party politics, his direction to RSS swayamsevaks was to do “their duty as citizens and stand in favour of putting their strength behind the overall national good”: which was defined as Hindutva “which is the eternal ethos of this country”. He attacked urban Naxals and spoke approvingly of the government’s actions against those who endorse the dismemberment of India, reminded the government about the Ram Janmabhoomi issue and generally supported government policy.

In this year’s Vijayadashami speech, concerns about India’s northern neighbour are both overt and covert. Much has been made about Bhagwat’s criticism of lynching because it is un-Hindu and unlawful. But equally important are his emphasis on swavlamban (self-reliance) and swadeshi. Combine this with his remarks on securing India’s borders especially in the north east and the RSS’s view of India in the world is: China could be a big future threat so gird your loins to meet it. 

It could be a coincidence that the speech comes ahead of the Modi-Xi meeting and a crucial turning point in negotiations for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. This is the context for what follows.
 

Bhagwat’s speech, in addition to remembering Thengadi ‘s birth centenary, notes the government is being forced to resort to privatisation and liberalising FDI norms to combat a global slowdown. But he adds approvingly that the government has simultaneously put in place policies that take into account the needs of the poorest, ensuring this section is not hurt. Maybe this is why despite extensive unemployment and lay-offs there are no public demonstrations against the government and Narendra Modi continues to win election after election.