Backroom politics

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comments that women are bound by contract to husband to look after him and should stay at home while the husband fulfils the breadwinner's duties has predictably generated a lot of controversy. But a senior Congress leader had a different take on the issue. In an off-the-record chat with journalists soon after the controversy, he wondered whether Bhagwat's comments mean that the RSS wants the parivar’s main woman leader, Sushma Swaraj, to stay at home and leave the seat vacant for an ambitious Narendra Modi.