There is a popular belief that RSS, which is at the core of the saffron brotherhood now in power, was successfully put on the back burner by Atal Behari Vajpayee, India's first Prime Minister from BJP, while his successor Narendra Modi is so much an RSS insider that making extra efforts to drive him along the assigned ideological path is like preaching to the choir.
The notion is not entirely correct. It is true that Vajpayee was noticeably free from the dogmas that RSS is famous for, but he too had to occasionally stand up to pressure from K.S.Sudarshan, the purist sarsanghchalak during most part of his years as PM. In 1998, on the eve of Vajpayee being sworn in, Sudarshan arrived at his door with the request to keep out of cabinet two men: Jaswant Singh and Pramod Mahajan. Vajpayee buckled. But only temporarily and later both were rewarded handsomely with lucrative posts in the Cabinet. On the other hand, Modi is regarded as a picture of compliance. After becoming Prime Minister in 2014 May, he was open to accepting an entire crew groomed in the Sangh's two institutes, Vivekanada International Foundation (VIF) and India Foundation (IF)—ranging from principal secretary to PM Nripendra Mishra and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to a battery of ministers. It was at the Sangh's prodding that Mahesh Sharma, a trusted ideologue (he heads the influential Deen Dayal Upadhyay research cell), was given three portfolios including the culture. Last year, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat merely informed Modi that his favourite Krishna Gopal would replace Suresh Soni as the Sangh's coordinating official with BJP.
Modi may have obeyed the RSS' "suggestions" on appointment of ministers & governors but thousands of RSS and its affiliate organizations are still waiting in the wings to be accommodated in posts open to social workers/politicians/experts/professionals. This was despite the fact that Bhagwat accepted Modi's request that his Man-Friday Amit Shah be made the party president. But the RSS is finding it quite ridiculous that the Modi government is sliding down the slippery slope on most matters—be it the economy or elections—despite there being no shortage of ministers and officials trained in its approved institutes. It failed to learn any lesson from the party's Delhi debacle and got another humiliating defeat in Bihar.
The RSS is now caught in a tricky situation. It of course cannot let the party's downslide continue, but it cannot be confrontational with Modi or his team in the manner that Sudarshan often got with Vajpayee. Sudarshan used Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) to put roadblocks on the government's efforts to attract FDI. It is rumoured that Duttopant Thengadi of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), a long-time critic of Vajpayee, was unleashed to scupper the sale of loss-making public sector units. Vajpayee, the outsider, had to be broken in. But Modi thinks and acts like everyone in the RSS; he has got the traits in his DNA.
Besides, Modi was brought into the race for PM's post after a long deliberation in the RSS, with many feathers ruffled, including that of L.K.Advani, the octogenarian former deputy prime minister. After the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, when Vajpayee was determined to sack Modi as chief minister, it was RSS' diktat, communicated through Advani, that helped him retain his job. But RSS had a different chief in 2013, when the choice of Modi as PM candidate was made. It so enraged Advani that he resigned from the party's parliamentary board, though Bhagwat persuaded him to withdraw it the next day.
The trouble with Modi is that he has acted independently for far too long. In the process, he has lost the team spirit which is the hallmark of the Sangh. He is now given to act after hearing his close aides, and nobody else. Bhagwat was obviously feeling the necessity to make Modi listen, which is perhaps the reason why Soni, known for his closeness to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and fondness for Modi, had to be replaced by Krishna Gopal, a loyalist from Mathura. But the coordinator's post is of too modest a height to speak into the ears of a poplar like Modi. It calls for someone senior and deft, like former party president Nitin Gadkari, for that matter. In short, RSS feels the need to disabuse Modi of his rather presidential self-image, without denting his self-esteem in any way. Despite his government getting rather wobbly, Modi's personal image is at the high noon, as evident in the reception he got in London last week and the public applause for his spell-binding speech at the British parliament. He continues to remain the most popular leader.
Since RSS has abiding faith in Modi's leadership quality, it can communicate to him discreetly, through a party president of its choice. Election in the party is due early next year or may be delayed by a few months due to Assembly polls in 5 states in May-June. But Shah’s days of glory are drawing to a close. It is also the time for him to reflect on his own role in the party’s electoral decline. Though BJP elects its office-bearers as per the rules of the Election Commission, it is well known that the party’s president is hand-picked by RSS, his ‘election’ being merely rationalization after event. Bhagwat, a pragmatist, is known to have agreed on Shah at Gadkari’s request last year. Be that as it may, it was clearly RSS’s way of keeping the new leader, Modi, in good humour as Shah didn’t have a strong qualification except being Modi’s Man Friday.
Nor can Bhagwat let this opportunity go. Two rounds of internal deliberations in the RSS have already taken place, and the time has arrived for surgery, not mere course correction. A large number of states are going to poll in 2016-17, which will set the stage for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Bhagwat surely has a comprehensive list ready of the new personnel who would take charge of the party and the government in the new year. But his obvious priority is to identify a party president who can talk to the Prime Minister like an equal, not as an obedient factotum.
