RSS questions NDA's feel-good statistics

The 1,200-odd delegates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who gathered at a suburb of the Pink city, fumed and fretted at the government but dropped enough hint for its cadres to extend their support to the Bharatiya Janata Party during the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

For the BJP, the meeting did not begin on a happy note. RSS's influential general secretary Mohan Bhagwat virtually rubbished the government's "India Shining" campaign by referring to the irrelevance of statistical data in assessing the reality.

"Real development indicators are not statistical figures but the lives of the people living in the lowest strata of our country," Bhagwat said while presenting the annual progress report of the RSS and its 42 affiliated organisations.

That the Sangh will not desist from meddling with economic affairs was clearly indicated by Bhagwat when he said a "Hindutva-inspired economic vision alone can fulfil the country's ambitions."

Bhagwat's contention was a clear rejection of the BJP move to appropriate the agenda of economic reforms, globalisation and liberalisation.

Delegates, including BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu, swadeshi ideologue S Gurumurthy and senior Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh leaders, clearly understood the underlying message of RSS general secretary that the organisation relied more on the swadeshi agenda than the government on economic issues.

Bhagwat said swadeshi could be the only course to follow to make India "competent in the international economic arena and demonstrate a Cancun-style strength and determination".

However, tension between the RSS and the government was visible in other areas as well. For the first time, RSS's apex decision making body candidly admitted that the performance of swayamsevaks occupying positions of power, like the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, fell far short of the Sangh Parivar's expectation.

"But there are certain limitations under which they (the top BJP leaders in the government) work," said RSS spokesman Ram Madhav.

"Our experience with the government has not been very encouraging," he said while quoting Bhagwat's utterances.

The RSS's display of aversion to politics could have been calculated to arrest the drift of its cadre towards politics which has emerged as more lucrative vocation for some.

Bhagwat tried to correct the situation by saying, "you cannot achieve so much merely by reaching to portals of power".

The deliberation was also a direct indictment of the BJP for its inefficacy in handling the core ideological issues like Ayodhya, Article 370, and a Uniform civil code.