What is this pretence about the RSS and BJP having nothing to do with each other, when everybody knows the latter would simply not exist without the former? The top leadership of the party has been drawn, almost exclusively, from the RSS and it continues, in spite of many contradictions engendered by the demands that government is making on it, to defer to it on matters of principle and ideology ..

There are many signs indicating that the RSS's influence or pressure on government may increase. One big reason is that the BJP is the only party which has a distinctive ideological profile, all others adopting the broad liberal philosophical outlook promoted by the Nehruvian state. The RSS is the BJP's ideological anchor. This is not apparent mainly because, under ordinary circumstances, the RSS doesn't say much about politics, preferring to liaise discreetly with its permanent representatives in government and party. The only occasions on which it deems it necessary to address the public at large are when certain issues come up: such as the building of the Ram temple in Ayodhya or the singing of Vande Mataram in schools in UP.

... At the chintan shivir - thinking camp - in New Delhi, the RSS openly proclaimed its ideological hegemony over the BJP, and, ultimately, over its government at the Centre. Its position on the opening up of the insurance sector is well-known.

There has been a plethora of announcements .. Then there are conciliatory gestures: call for a dialogue with Muslims and Christians, note taken of the "gender shift" in politics, attempt to come to terms with all the other elements that have infiltrated the polity since Golwalkar ... Finally, there is the threat that if the BJP does not stick to swadeshi and nationalism, the RSS may look for other clients. These are political pronouncements - the RSS is not operating incognito anymore.

This indicates that the RSS is even less certain about what to do than the BJP ... The BJP can always shelter behind realpolitik, the RSS can't. Therefore, we shall be treated to a succession of discordant notes beneath the mellifluous symphony Vajpayee is trying to coax out of his unruly orchestra, with the possibility that, if this political pressure by the RSS is -sustained there may be a division of ranks within the BJP itself over its future course ...