It appears difficult to believe that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which has always been the ideological mentor and guide of the Bharatiya Janata Party, would have decided to be somewhat indifferent in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
While it is not easy to understand the reason for this distance, the consequences of this would certainly have an impact not only on the future of the BJP, but also of national politics, regardless of the poll outcome.
There have been reports that some RSS cadres who looked after the micro-management issues involved during both the run-up to the elections and on polling day, were not very enthused this time over. Some BJP nominees confirmed this non-participation by the RSS.
If at some places, the RSS activists helped, it was primarily because of their long-standing personal relations with the candidates. The first official indication of the strained relations came when the BJP chief, J.P. Nadda, in an interview to a leading national daily stated that his party was self-reliant and no longer dependent on the Sangh.
The timing of the interview in the middle of the poll process, was very odd, and thus led to multiple speculations as to what may have gone wrong between the two outfits, both committed to the Hindutva philosophy. In fact, the RSS has inspired the BJP as also many of its other frontal organizations to carry the flag of patriotism and nationalism as also to protect the interests of the Hindus.
Over a period of time, there have been two streams of thoughts that have been discussed within the Sangh. One such doctrine initiated during the tenure of Guru Golwalkar was that efforts should be made to transform the society in order to seize power through a democratic process.
The other belief, enunciated when Balasaheb Deoras was the RSS boss stated that power should be acquired and made an instrument in transforming society. However, at no stage has the Sangh ever adopted any official line on the subject and has allowed the ground situation to evolve in order to strategize as per the need of the hour. This while ensuring that its basic ideology never got diluted in any manner.
It has also been observed that while the RSS has always backed the BJP in the past, it has on some occasions, been flexible in respect of lending support to other parties. This happened since the Sangh believed that it would help the country at that particular juncture. It is in this context that the RSS did support the Congress in 1980 after the failed Janata Party experiment had cast a shadow over its existence.
There were several Janata Party leaders, particularly erstwhile socialists led by Madhu Limaye and Raj Narain, who spoke about the dual membership of the former Jana Sangh members, and demanded that this should end. In fact, the Jana Sangh members within the Janata Party were the most disciplined, and did nothing to destabilise the government, which was the handiwork of some ambitious leaders, such as Chaudhury Charan Singh, who used the socialists for this purpose.
Even though many RSS functionaries had been imprisoned during the Emergency, the Sangh leadership at that stage in 1979, decided to send feelers to Indira Gandhi and the Congress. In a meeting that took place between some RSS functionaries and the late Sanjay Gandhi, important issues were discussed.
Sanjay is understood to have made it abundantly clear to the RSS leadership that if they thought that the meeting ground between them could be his perceived aversion to Muslims, it was not going to happen, since this assumption was inaccurate. However, the main point on which the two could have some sort of an understanding was the shared belief of being against Left and communist ideology.
The RSS had sent a signal to its cadres to support the Congress and the erstwhile Jana Sangh members contested on the Janata Party symbol with Atal Behari Vajpayee emerging victorious for the second time from New Delhi. A few months later the BJP came into existence.
Again in 1984 following the tragic assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her own security guards, the RSS put its weight behind the Congress “in the larger interest of the country” and Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister with a record number of over 400 seats in the Lok Sabha. It is a matter of record that Rajiv had a very good relationship with Bhaurau Deoras, the younger brother of the then RSS chief and was influenced by him while taking many important decisions.
If the RSS has now decided to distance itself from the BJP, there has to be some very big reason, which eventually would come out in the course of time.
The effort of the RSS has been to ensure that the country was not divided in any manner over caste, religion or regional issues as this would be not in anyone’s interests. The country will always remain paramount.
Between us.