When union minister Nitin Gadkari said last week that RSS ideology is the solution for all problems, he was only articulating the essence of the Narendra Modi government’s ideological mooring. From triple talaq to prevention of cow slaughter, the policies and initiatives of the BJP-ruled states are working on the RSS agenda of what it calls ‘social and economic transformation’.
It was not surprising that the new chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, had a four-hour long meeting on governance just a few days ago with the RSS brass. Among those present were Dattatreya Hosabale and Krishna Gopal besides ‘kshetra pracharak’ of eastern Uttar Pradesh Shiv Narayan and the western region head Alok. BJP general secretary Ram Lal and national vice president Om Mathur were also present at the brain storming session on governance.
The Sangh is closely involved in deciding focus areas in BJP-ruled states. Uttar Pradesh being the most populous state in the Hindi belt, it is natural that it should be used as a laboratory to experiment with the Sangh Parivar’s nationalist agenda.
The meeting between the Uttar Pradesh chief minister and RSS brass – where the discussions veered towards communal violence in Saharanpur and Agra – was dubbed as a coordination meeting to ensure synergy between the government and the workers on the ground. Days after this meeting, BJP president Amit Shah interacted with Sangh functionaries in Jammu to discuss the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, another state high on the agenda of the Sangh Parivar. The RSS favours abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and has strong views relating to the resettlement of Kashmiri pandits in the valley – two issues that have the sensitive area on the boil.
With the BJP consolidating its hold over power in many states, various Sangh organisations have gone into overdrive to bring in ‘transformation’. BJP president Amit Shah has articulated in the past that the BJP’s agenda is not reform but transformation. This transformation flows from the RSS ideology.
Within the RSS, there is a core group of functionaries who are actively involved in spreading the message of the organisation. This is rare occasion in history when the BJP has emerged as the most dominant political party nationally after it knocked the Congress out of power convincingly in the 2014 general elections. Its subsequent victories in state polls have further strengthened its position politically across the country. Much has been done with the help of the RSS that sent its pracharaks to election-bound states and began work on the ground months in advance of the elections.
The BJP’s victories and consequent expansion have a two-fold benefit. The expansion of BJP automatically gives strength to the RSS while the party gets a free hand to experiment with governance.
Not only in the battle for governance, the RSS wants to win the intellectual war as well. “We should connect with masses in colleges and universities and study one subject over a period of time. We have to make the general masses aware about decolonisation,” said RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at a seminar organised some time back by RSS affiliate Bharatiya Vichar Manch (BVM) on “Decolonisation of Indian Mind”.
He said that BVM was working towards changing dialogue-deliberation in the country. “We have to prepare ourselves for an intellectual war,” said the RSS chief asking the functionaries to fight collectively. “We have to decolonise ourselves first. Shri Guruji (Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, the second Sarsanghchalak) said that Marx talked about violence because he saw atrocities. Thus, Guruji was able to see compassion behind Marx’s thoughts. We must keep Sarvesham Avirodhen (accepting everyone without resistance) vision in mind,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and Amit Shah’s election management skills are credited with BJP’s incredible victory march, but the RSS’s role in galvanising public opinion on the ground has only strengthened in recent years. The organisation has put its weight behind the Modi government’s policies and is keen to extend the BJP’s reach in the states where it had little presence.
The RSS annual report for 2017 has a special mention for West Bengal and Kerala, two states it considers as final frontiers for the BJP, which has never won there. “West Bengal, which remained victim of Left violence for years, was yearning for a better change following the ouster of the Leftists from the seat of power. But ever since the transformation of power, the attacks on Hindu society have increased in most serious manner,” noted the RSS report calling for looking at the events in the state – be it the attack on Hindus in Malda or Dhulagarh or the ‘appeasement’ of Muslims by the Mamata Banerjee government.
“The situation in Kerala is also worrisome. After the Leftists’ victory at the assembly elections, there has been a sudden rise in attacks on activists associated with RSS-inspired organisations,” said the annual report about the situation in the southern state.
It is clear that West Bengal and Kerala are going to be the two major target states for the organisation in the coming months. It would ensure that the BJP, which has minimal presence at the moment in the two coastal states, makes impressive inroads and captures power.
With a team of intellectual power houses like Suresh (Bhaiyyaji) Joshi, Suresh Soni, Dattatreya Hosabale, Krishna Gopal and Indresh Kumar, the RSS is all set to consolidate its position and go for a transformation that it aspired for since its inception. It is passing through one of the best phases politically. If there ever was a conducive atmosphere for the nationalist view to dominate, it is today.
