. Senior BJP leaders draw their power not from the other elected bodies of the party but directly from the RSS. And if they fall out of RSS favour, they are dropped, taken out and discarded, like the fly in the milk.

Senior RSS leaders have often made it clear that the "long-term" goals of the RSS include the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra or a state with Hindutva at the core of its ideology.

The "core" Hindutva issues have often been articulated by the BJP - a Ram temple at Ayodhya, scraping of Article 370 of the Constitution which confers special privileges on Jammu and Kashmir, a common civil code, pushing back all "infiltrators" from Bangladesh (all Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh fit into the RSS description of "infiltrators", whereas the Hindu immigrants are called "refugees").

The present coalition is only a stepping stone to the goal of putting the BJP in power with a majority of its own so that it can then go ahead and complete the task the RSS has set for it. Until then, the BJP will be forced to put Hindutva on the back burner. ...

The RSS bosses have made it equally clear that the party will not hesitate to help other parties if, by doing so, it can meet its target faster ...

... To this day, the RSS and its other wings such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have the "liberation" of the Kashi and Mathura temples also on their agenda.

The land on which the Gyan Vapi mosque in Kashi and the Idgah at Mathura stand must be "handed back to the Hindus". As for Ayodhya, it has already been demonstrated what the "liberation" meant, demolition of the Babari Masjid.

The BJP has been carefully avoiding any criticism of the RSS or the VHP on Kashi and Mathura. The standard response to the RSS/VHP agenda is that these are "cultural organisations" and they have the right to say and do what they believe in ...                                                                                                               (Source: The Hindu, 29 March, 1998)