Eminent Academician Partha S. Ghosh
The Bharatiya Janata Party's RSS connection become a matter of controversy whenever the party has come to power ... The present experience is no exception. But there is a qualitative change now. There was a time when the party depended solely upon the RSS for votes and ideological support. Today, the RSS depends upon the party.
Two factors account for this: one, the rapid expansion of the BJP thanks to an unprecedented exodus from other parties by people who have little to do with khaki shorts and an expanding base among the Indian diaspora. Two, the technological and modernisation process which is making the RSS ideology increasingly outdated.
India is not the Shah's Iran. Its democratic institutions are firmly rooted and all channels of democratic protest are available to the people. This factor together with the reality that technology is moving at a breakneck speed is leaving the RSS-type ideology gasping for its basic survival.
What is happening in Gujarat or UP may apparently sound alarming, but it is symptomatic of a fear of extinction. The best strategy for the BJP now should be to force the bees to remain in their hive and avoid fiddling with it lest they fly helter-skelter, making peaceful life miserable. A.B. Vajpayee and many others in the party realise this, but go astray at times under sudden existential pressures of politics ...
Now about the rapid expansion of the BJP. We must understand that the BJP can no longer be treated in isolation without reference to two factors. One, its dependence on other political parties as well as on all those leaders who have joined it of late, and two, its traditional connection with Hindutva. Both the important for the party and they need delicate balancing. An appeal to Hindu sentiments helps the party, but the RSS, the VHP, and the like do not necessarily serve the purpose. On the contrary, their overt display of that sentiment, as reflected in the anti-Water violence, the anti-Pope agitation, and the controversy over conversions, becomes counter-production.
Given the plurality of Hindu religion, a pro-Hindutva understatement is more appealing to the masses than tom-tomming it. If the backward caste movement is a permanent fixture in Indian politics ever since V.P. Singh Mandalised it, so is the 'Hindu vote' a reality in Indian politics ever since BJP gave it political respectability. But that Hindu vote alone, say, 25 per cent, is not sufficient to ensure the BHJP remains in power. More important is that crucial 25 per cent plus in the other parties' turf. If the BJP identifies too much with the RSS variety of Hindutva it would not only alienate its partners in the NDA, but also those non-RSS BJP members for they would be reduced to second class members in the party. The danger is so real that it may rend, leave alone the NDA, even the BJP, asunder ... (Source: The Times.of India, 13 February, 2000)
Neena Vyas On RSS-BJP Relationship
In fact, the RSS is in on all major policy issues, and often "coordinates" its other affiliates to create the political climate to help the BJP ... The relationship is so intimate that it is unthinkable the BJP can decide who its party president should be without "consultation" with the RSS top brass. In 1998 the RSS asked the Prime Minister to drop Jaswant Singh from the list of Ministers sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan ...
Again, the RSS was very much in the picture when the BJP decided to jettison the then Delhi Chief Minister, Sahib Singh Verma ... When Madan Lal Khurana fell out of grace after his outbursts against the BJP and the RSS, he had to make peace with the RSS masters before retaining his place in. the BJP. And in 1998 the Prime Minister had to "settle" economic policy issues at the RSS level ...
The BJP brought Ayodhya on its agenda in 1989 after the VHP had "created" the political climate for it. It has put it on the backburner in deference to the "compulsions of coalition politics". But Ayodhya as well as Kashi and Mathura temple- mosque controversies remain on the RSS-VHP live agenda, reappearing every now and then in the BJP when loyal 'swayamsewaks' like the current Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister blurt out the truth.
The recent eruptions on the face of the Indian polity -the protests over Deepa Mehta's film, Water, Bajrang Dal bands parading girls and boys in the streets of Kanpur for celebrating Valentine's Day, the first sign of a call for a new dress code for schoolgirls, the recall of two volumes of the "Towards Freedom" history project - are all loud signals that the RSS ideology is very much at work. It is immaterial who its agent might be - the VHP, the Bajrang Dal or the Vajpayee Government itself. They are part of the same Sangh Parivar of which the RSS is the head. The RSS has kept away from direct entry into politics, preferring to practise it by remote control. (Source: The Hindu, 20 February, 2000)
