Fly on the wall
Harish Gupta
RSS Returns to Vigyan Bhawan After 7 Years
After a seven-year pause, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is set to relaunch its marquee public lecture series at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan later this year—marking a renewed outreach drive in its centenary year. Tentatively scheduled for late August or early September, the three-day event will be led by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. It signals the Sangh’s intent to re-engage with a wider cross-section of society—beyond its shakhas and ideological circles—at a time of shifting political winds.
The last such series, held in September 2018, was a watershed moment. It was the first time in over four decades that an RSS Sarsanghchalak addressed a mainstream public gathering of such scale. Over 1,500 people attended daily, including industrialists, film personalities, diplomats, academics, judges, and retired bureaucrats. Bhagwat spoke solo on the first two days; on the third, he fielded pre-submitted, anonymous questions—about 220 in all—carefully sorted by theme and selectively answered. It was an unusual moment of openness for the otherwise inward-looking organization.
Before that, the last comparable event was in 1974, when then-chief M.D. Deoras addressed Pune’s Vasant Vyakhyanmala lecture series, famously declaring untouchability a “sin”—a landmark moment in the Sangh’s evolution on social issues. With this year’s lecture series, the RSS is expected to sharpen its messaging, project ideological clarity, and expand its cultural and intellectual imprint—right from the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi. In its centenary moment, the Sangh appears poised not just to reflect, but to reposition itself for the battles—political, ideological, and societal—that lie ahead.
Kejriwal Eyes Gujarat to dislodge Congress
After months of silence, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal has re-emerged on the national stage with a sharp focus on Gujarat. Buoyed by Gopal Italia’s bypoll victory in Visavadar, Kejriwal is looking to make the state his second political home — aiming to push AAP as the BJP’s principal challenger. Kejriwal’s gambit is built on the steady erosion of the Congress. The grand old party has been in free fall since 2017 — its tally dropping from 77 to 17 seats in 2022. Five Congress MLAs have since defected to the BJP. Even its symbolic face in Gujarat, Shaktisinh Gohil, resigned as state chief taking moral responsibility for the latest loss.
AAP, which entered Gujarat politics through local body wins in Surat in 2021, sees a growing vacuum. “Visavadar is the semi-final; 2027 will be ours,” declared AAP’s Gujarat president Isudan Gadhvi. Rahul Gandhi’s revival drive — Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan — has faltered, with nearly 40% of local-level recommendations being overruled by the high command, deepening factionalism.
But AAP’s own journey isn’t without baggage. Italia, a prominent face of the movement alongside Hardik Patel, faces legal cases. Skeptics recall how Patel too had once joined Congress, only to shift to the BJP within two years. Despite past third fronts failing in Gujarat, Kejriwal is betting big — hoping his governance plank and outsider image can break the BJP-Congress binary. As he plants deeper political roots in the state, Gujarat may well become AAP’s next big laboratory after Delhi and Punjab.
Nitish's bluster: Bihar FDI Flow in 5 years?Just $216 million
The Nitish Kumar government has been beating the drum about its governance and it is collapsing one by one; be it law and order, schemes and even education. Look at the industrial development and growth under his regime in Bihar now! Nitish Kumar even traveled abroad to attract Foreign Direct Investment in the state. Even other NDA leaders are also beating behind the bush about the industrial growth in the state. But one will stop breathing for a moment if he or she learns how much FDI and other foreign exchange remittances Bihar attracted during 2023-24. Merely 1.3% ! According to India’s Balance of Payments data of the RBI, the gross inward remittances to India stood at US Dollar (USD) 118.7 billion. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) survey on remittances for the year 2023-24 shows that the share of Bihar in India's inward remittances was 1.3 per cent.
Total FDI inflow includes equity inflow, equity capital of unincorporated bodies, reinvested earnings, and other capital. The cumulative FDI equity inflow over the period October 2019 to December, 2024, into Bihar is USD 215.76 million. One can assume how much investment came to Bihar and how much industrial growth could have taken place. Interestingly, this data was shared by the government officially while responding to a parliamentary question recently. It is said that foreign investments contribute to the State-level development by improving the competitiveness of the recipient sectors. FDI inflow results in enhanced economic activity through the transfer of capital, technical know-how and skills.
BJP in a Bind Over 'Socialist' and 'Secular' Labels
RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale’s recent call to review the Emergency-era inclusion of the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ in the Preamble of the Constitution has found ready backing from several BJP leaders — but also spotlighted an awkward contradiction. While many in the BJP have echoed Hosabale’s ideological pitch, the party’s own constitution mandates allegiance to the very principles it now seeks to revisit. Article II of the BJP constitution states that the party shall bear “true faith and allegiance to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy.” It’s a clause that top leaders seem to have overlooked in their rush to back the RSS line.
In order to reconcile this, the BJP has long pushed its own definitions — including a concept of ‘Positive Secularism’ as stated in Article IV of its constitution, defined as Sarva Dharma Samabhava, or equal respect for all religions. But this semantic juggling hasn't resolved the core ideological tension. But Hosabale’s remarks go beyond just the two words. He also flagged other provisions of the 42nd Amendment, like the transfer of five subjects — including education and forests — from the State List to the Concurrent List. Several states may welcome any move to reverse that centralisation. Still, any such review faces serious hurdles- political & legal.
The Supreme Court has already upheld the 42nd Amendment, and key NDA allies like the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) have publicly opposed tampering with the Preamble. Unless Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah break their silence, the debate is likely to remain within Sangh circles — and among those close to Nagpur. For now, the BJP must reckon with one irony: before altering the nation’s charter, it may need to revisit its own.