Kushabhau Thakre the BJP chief ... belongs to the RSS hard-core ... The RSS high command wanted its own man, who had gone through the mill.
... The initial phase of utilising liberal faces in advancing the party is being pushed to the background. The RSS wanted them to articulate Hindu reviva. They have acquitted themselves well in the task ..
. The RSS feels that it has reached a stage where it has less and less use for liberals. It is, however, gratified that the strategy has worked. The BJP has increased its strength from mere eight in the 1980 polls to nearly 180 in the current election, within a span of 18 years. Not only that, some political parties, once sworn enemy of the BJP, have helped it ...
But now that the ground has been prepared, the RSS wants to consolidate the BJP ... Ideologue Govindacharya has been brought back with a new designation to reorganise the set-up. This looks like a phase of delineating the concept of Hindu Rashtra, giving it more depth. The RSS has found that liberal members in the BJP hedge and do not unequivocally take a stand when the option before them is straight Hindutva. The RSS also anticipates some sort of confrontation with the BJP-led government at a later stage ... It wants a different programme in the cultural and information fields. Mr. Thakre has said that the BJP has a different agenda from that of the government ... The RSS feels relieved that their confidant will not swerve from the path it has chalked out to convert India into a Hindu state. ...
All the RSS campaign has been against secularism, a concept of pluralistic society which does not give Hindus "its due". The composite culture has been regarded as an antithesis of Hindutva. How can it accept even in a diluted form a philosophy which goes against the grain of its policies. Whenever Advani says that there is no going back on secularism - he was commenting on changes in the Constitution - the RSS cadre and its supporters feel confused. They wonder where does the BJP, which is a creative of stirrings for Hindu Rashtra, stand? After all, when the erstwhile Jana Sangh converted itself into the BJP in 1980 if made no secret that it preferred the fundamentalist RSS to the liberal Janata. Otherwise, it would not have left the party ...
A recent meeting of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a wing of the RSS, was reportedly rowdy and uncontrollable. The RSS had to intervene to stop them from raising the demand for building the Ram temple ... Apparently, the BJP does not have a strong legal case because Advani appealed to Muslims to withdraw their petition regarding the ownership of the Babari Masjid site from the Allahabad High Court.
Even if the Babari Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi dispute is settled amicably, the RSS cannot afford to change its line of Hindu Rashtra because that is its raison d'etre. All its. support emanates from that resolve. Those who make religion the basis of a state ride a tiger which tension dismount ... Fanaticism is like fire which cannot be quenched, it can only destroy whatever comes its reach. Ethnic minorities and lower caste groups do not tend to think of their identities in a comparably exclusive fashion ...
What the RSS does not realise is that the most striking feature of Indian politics is its persistent (secularism) ... Violence is an outburst or aberration and not suited to the Hindu genius. It has withstood pressure from fanatics and fundamentalists, whose fervour has always subsided eventually, because tolerance is firmly implanted in the mind of Indians ... They cannot sell the nation a dogma which mixes religion with politics.
The violence associated with the Ram Janambhoomi campaign may have stimulated popular involvement in the short run but it ultimately backfired ...
The RSS should realise that it cannot tilt India's ethos to the right. It has already done great damage to the polity by fomenting hatred between Hindus and Muslims. One feels that it would only burn its fingers if it were to push its strategy further ... (Source: The Hindustan times, 9 May, 1998)
