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In off-the-record conversations, senior ministers in the Narendra Modi government, as also leading Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, insist the media makes too much of what some of the Sangh affiliates have to say about the government’s policies.
“Did you in the media bother talking to them when we were not in power,” a senior minister recently asked a group of journalists.
News reports highlighting dissonance between affiliates like the Mazdoor and the Kisan Sangh on the one side and the Modi government on the other, are similarly dismissed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as well as the BJP leadership as lack of understanding of the workings of the Sangh.
“Did you in the media bother talking to them when we were not in power,” a senior minister recently asked a group of journalists.
News reports highlighting dissonance between affiliates like the Mazdoor and the Kisan Sangh on the one side and the Modi government on the other, are similarly dismissed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as well as the BJP leadership as lack of understanding of the workings of the Sangh.
What comes through, however, is tension not only between the government and Sangh affiliates, but RSS and its outfits working among workers and peasants, concerned about losing their support due to the government’s pro-reform agenda.
If insiders are to be believed, the RSS brass has asked its affiliates to give the government time and space to deliver on its development promise, instead of being vocal about their grievances against land acquisition and labour laws.
A similar message has been conveyed to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, to pursue controversial issues like “love jihad” and “ghar wapsi” away from the media spotlight. Earlier this month, Home Minister Rajnath Singh did not endear himself to core BJP supporters when he said in Ayodhya it was not possible to enact a law for the construction of a Ram temple this time, as the party did not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha.
This is a situation not entirely to the liking of the affiliates, all of which have leaders with their own ambitions to grab their spot in the sun. But they dare not defy RSS.
These affiliates complain the BJP-Sangh coordination meetings, only a couple of which have been held in the past year, are insufficient to address their concerns on the government’s policies. They think they are not accorded by ministers the respect they deserve, particularly as the Sangh contributed significantly to BJP’s Lok Sabha win.
It is not a new tussle between the unelected Sangh and elected BJP leaders. But RSS, led by Mohan Bhagwat and deputies like Suresh ‘Bhaiyaji’ Joshi, Dattatreya Hosabale and Krishna Gopal, is willing to be patient. Those not on the same page, like Suresh Soni, are eased out. Modi is said to communicate regularly. He has hosted RSS leaders at 7 Race Course Road for dinner, and ministers visit RSS headquarters in Nagpur routinely for an “exchange of views”.
RSS leaders have also mediated among senior ministers, including when the home minister felt outmanoeuvred. RSS has even been willing to gulp the bitter pill of BJP running a coalition government with the People’s Democratic Party in J&K. The personal rapport between Modi and Bhagwat — they go a long way back — contributed to the trust.
RSS has so far been satisfied with some BJP-ruled states passing laws to ban cow slaughter, a crackdown on certain non-governmental organisations, and placing of its people in key positions in academia.
Meanwhile, the BJP has gone about reinventing itself by launching an ambitious membership drive that could potentially reduce its dependence on the Sangh during elections. Although failure to deliver on its promises and reverses in state assembly polls in 2015-16 might lead the BJP and Modi government to yet again turn to RSS agenda by the time elections to the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly take place in early 2017.
