RSS ideologues accept BJP's rise grudgingly

TURMOIL IN THE SANGH-II

It was a mere coincidence that four Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) pracharaks were abducted in Assam by militants a few days after Atal Bihari Vajpayee took over as the Prime Minister in 1998.

With a sympathetic government headed by a Swayamsevak, the RSS leadership expected a quick response.

But the whereabouts of those pracharaks are still not known. The Sangh believes they were taken to Bangladesh and killed and has declared them martyrs.

"Has the issue of the missing, believed killed, pracharaks ever been raised in Parliament?" asked a RSS functionary.

The Sangh says it can understand the dilemma of the Congress, the Left and secular parties in raising the issue in House.

What is more important to them is the BJP's silence. Nor is this an isolated incident, which exposes the conflict between the puritans and the pragmatists within the Parivar.

There is fear that the BJP is too deeply engrossed in the power-game to pay attention to issues central to the existence of the Sangh Parivar.

For instance, the RSS noted with disapproval the way the BJP forced MPs like Mahant Adityanath to withdraw their private members' Billswith regard to the cow protection and uniform civil code.

But there is nothing that the RSS can do to take up these issues independently without crossing the government's path.

But the RSS leadership is certainly taking with a pinch of salt, the assertion made by the BJP that once in the governance, the party has to soft-pedal ideological issues.

"If Jayalalithaaand Narendra Modi could pass a law to ban conversion, why not the Centre?" asked a RSS leader.

That the RSS leadership is experiencing a "home-alone" position was articulated by RSS spokesman Ram Madhav at a recent meeting of BJP's media managers in Delhi.

His remark "Aakhir hum bhi to hai team me (after all we are also the part of team)" was meant to convey anguish of the RSS on the BJP's over-emphasis on development issues at the expense of ideological issues.

Similar frustration was evident in the ideological fraternity when Union HRD Minister Mulri Manohar Joshi virtually tore apart the new economic policy at a lecture in Hyderabad at a time when the BJP's national executive passed the economic resolution.

Despite underlying tensions within the Parivar, it would be presumptuous to surmise that the RSS would work against the BJP in the forthcoming elections.

Given Vajpayee's rising popularity and the lack of political legitimacy of other constituents of the Sangh Parivar, the RSS is rapidly being reduced to play second fiddle to the BJP leadership.

And this harsh reality is borne out by the manner in which the RSS has almost decided to withdraw itself from going into details of the economic issues.

Unlike the past when the RSS considered the selloffof oil sector PSUs as a security issue, there is a silence on it now.

Similarly, the raising of FDI in the telecom sector from 49 per cent to 74 per cent is not considered an ideological issue.

"If the FDI could be raised to 49 per cent, there is no ideology involved in 74 per cent," said a senior RSS leader who maintains that the RSS should have an economic world-view but avoid specifics, which could make them pawns in a spill-over of corporate war.

Of course, the RSS leadership's grudging acceptance of the BJP's political dominance is being seen as a dangerous signal for the ideology and the issues for which the Sangh Parivar stood for. But there is hardly any option.