by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
However, there was an unmistakable sense of relief in the RSS ranks following the decision. It was felt that there would be 'business as usual' with no change of general secretary, who is in fact the chief executive of the brotherhood, while the sarsanchalak, Mohan Bhagwat, is the chief mentor, a post which is high yet mainly titular. Be it in framing policy or moving personnel, it is the sahkaryavah whose word is law in the sangh. It is a fact that every BJP bigwig including powerful ministers must keep this in mind at his own sufferance. And it is one of the 'brotherhood's' worst kept secrets that Bhaiyaji Joshi is not the one who gets swayed by Modi's reformist agenda. Nothing would have pleased the Prime Minister more if Hosabale hadn't cracked so unceremoniously. He is much younger than Modi; besides, the two had worked together in their younger days in the sangh's student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). But Bhaiyaji is a tough cookie.
Modi sensed it from his early days in power at the Centre when an RSS group confronted his acolyte, HRD Minister Smriti Irani, demanding scrapping of the four-year university programme (FYUP) that had been introduced by theDelhi
University
Over time, there came numerous occasions for Modi to be reminded that the RSS hadn't given him unqualified power to call the shots. The 'Shiksha Bachao' (Save Education) committee chief Dina Nath Batra, known for his closeness to Bhaiyaji, and famous for having forced the publisher of Harvard Sanskrit scholar Wendy Doniger's book on Hinduism to pulp it, launched a move to make the aptitude tests for candidates seeking government jobs less dependent on English skills and more on fluency in Hindi or other Indian languages. Once again an anti-elitist move, it is known to have been accepted by the government in principle and a committee has been set up to advise the Union Public Service Commission on the nitty-gritty of de-Anglicisation of its entry tests.
But the Big Brother was not contented with needling the government merely on cultural issues. The objection to WTO's Bali Agreement that India must not surrender its right to subsidise food came not from any opposition party—the UPA government had in fact buckled a year ago—but due to persistent pressure of Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), an outfit that preaches ultra-nationalist economic ideology.
No reform measure attempted by the Modi government has gone unopposed by RSS's nationalist hardliners, whose thinking process, strangely, resembles socialists of the past. It is much due to sustained opposition from this cabal that the government's steps at labour reform have been glaciated in parliamentary committees. Notable among these are proposed amendments to the Apprentice Act 1961, or the Factories Act 1948, not to speak of an amendment that could make lakhs of small enterprises free from the costly and pointless obligation of furnishing regular returns and maintaining registry. These reforms were all tabled before Parliament last year but are yet to be enacted. There is no effort either to change the Industrial Disputes Act in line with the state government of Rajasthan, by making retrenchment of workers in smaller establishments more a labour issue than political, with the government to have the final call. It is argued that the absence of an 'exit policy' for labour and capital has been largely responsible for turning investors away. But the Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS), trade union wing of the RSS, is aligned with other central trade union organisations, including those led by the communist parties, in blocking changes in the ID Act. Moreover, the opposition parties, particularly the Congress, were no doubt stumbling block for the Modi government's land acquisition law. Surface Transport and former Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari took it as his mission to win over the RSS, and was successful in convincing Mohan Bhagwat. But even after nine amendments, the Modi land bill is not out of the woods as yet. The hardcore of the RSS somehow has a distaste for the label of being “pro-industry” and “pro-growth”. The RSS’s ideological arms, like SJM and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, always played off against modernity. During the first NDA government under A. B. Vajpayee, the late Dattopant Thengadi, founder of BMS, made it an ordeal for the government to divest its stakes in its tottering PSUs. It was an embarrassment for a government that had set up, for the first time in the economic history of independentIndia
On the face of it, the fact of
the annual RSS pratinidhi sabha that concluded in Nagpur
However, there was an unmistakable sense of relief in the RSS ranks following the decision. It was felt that there would be 'business as usual' with no change of general secretary, who is in fact the chief executive of the brotherhood, while the sarsanchalak, Mohan Bhagwat, is the chief mentor, a post which is high yet mainly titular. Be it in framing policy or moving personnel, it is the sahkaryavah whose word is law in the sangh. It is a fact that every BJP bigwig including powerful ministers must keep this in mind at his own sufferance. And it is one of the 'brotherhood's' worst kept secrets that Bhaiyaji Joshi is not the one who gets swayed by Modi's reformist agenda. Nothing would have pleased the Prime Minister more if Hosabale hadn't cracked so unceremoniously. He is much younger than Modi; besides, the two had worked together in their younger days in the sangh's student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). But Bhaiyaji is a tough cookie.
Modi sensed it from his early days in power at the Centre when an RSS group confronted his acolyte, HRD Minister Smriti Irani, demanding scrapping of the four-year university programme (FYUP) that had been introduced by the
Over time, there came numerous occasions for Modi to be reminded that the RSS hadn't given him unqualified power to call the shots. The 'Shiksha Bachao' (Save Education) committee chief Dina Nath Batra, known for his closeness to Bhaiyaji, and famous for having forced the publisher of Harvard Sanskrit scholar Wendy Doniger's book on Hinduism to pulp it, launched a move to make the aptitude tests for candidates seeking government jobs less dependent on English skills and more on fluency in Hindi or other Indian languages. Once again an anti-elitist move, it is known to have been accepted by the government in principle and a committee has been set up to advise the Union Public Service Commission on the nitty-gritty of de-Anglicisation of its entry tests.
But the Big Brother was not contented with needling the government merely on cultural issues. The objection to WTO's Bali Agreement that India must not surrender its right to subsidise food came not from any opposition party—the UPA government had in fact buckled a year ago—but due to persistent pressure of Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), an outfit that preaches ultra-nationalist economic ideology.
No reform measure attempted by the Modi government has gone unopposed by RSS's nationalist hardliners, whose thinking process, strangely, resembles socialists of the past. It is much due to sustained opposition from this cabal that the government's steps at labour reform have been glaciated in parliamentary committees. Notable among these are proposed amendments to the Apprentice Act 1961, or the Factories Act 1948, not to speak of an amendment that could make lakhs of small enterprises free from the costly and pointless obligation of furnishing regular returns and maintaining registry. These reforms were all tabled before Parliament last year but are yet to be enacted. There is no effort either to change the Industrial Disputes Act in line with the state government of Rajasthan, by making retrenchment of workers in smaller establishments more a labour issue than political, with the government to have the final call. It is argued that the absence of an 'exit policy' for labour and capital has been largely responsible for turning investors away. But the Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS), trade union wing of the RSS, is aligned with other central trade union organisations, including those led by the communist parties, in blocking changes in the ID Act. Moreover, the opposition parties, particularly the Congress, were no doubt stumbling block for the Modi government's land acquisition law. Surface Transport and former Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari took it as his mission to win over the RSS, and was successful in convincing Mohan Bhagwat. But even after nine amendments, the Modi land bill is not out of the woods as yet. The hardcore of the RSS somehow has a distaste for the label of being “pro-industry” and “pro-growth”. The RSS’s ideological arms, like SJM and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, always played off against modernity. During the first NDA government under A. B. Vajpayee, the late Dattopant Thengadi, founder of BMS, made it an ordeal for the government to divest its stakes in its tottering PSUs. It was an embarrassment for a government that had set up, for the first time in the economic history of independent
Why does RSS refuse to come to terms with the idea of a
modern state conscious of its cultural heritage yet open to new ideas? Having a
big brother is never a good idea. But it would be wrong to say if the big
brother is a bully and bereft of brains.
(The author is national editor Lokmat group)
