A.J. Philip, Associate Editor, The Indian Express, New Delhi

Vajpayee's clean chit to the RSS ... and Advani's open-mindedness on the question of allowing central government employees to join the RSS are all intended to test the waters. If the near-silence from the BJP's allies is anything to go by, it will not be long before central government employees will be able to take part in the morning shakhas of the RSS and attend their government offices later in the day.

The central issue is how participation of government employees in the RSS will compromise the political neutrality of the government. It is true that the RSS is not a banned organisation but that does not legitimise involvement of government employees in its activities, either ...

(The) "apolitical character" of the 75-year-old organisation has enabled it to withstand the pressures of time. But that does not mean that the RSS has not played any political role. It is as political a body as any other except that it has a long-term view, unlike the Janata Dals or the Congress, whose vision is narrow and chair-centric, and all its actions are in furtherance of it...

Its claims of political disinterestedness had a selfish motive too. During the British period, it did not want to antagonise the government and thereby invite retributive action. Walter Anderson and S.D. Damle, who are otherwise favourably disposed towards the RSS, in their pioneering study on the RSS, Brotherhood in Saffron were constrained to write: "When the British banned military drill and the use of uniforms in all nonofficial organisations, the RSS complied." It even stayed aloof from the Quit India movement earning, in the process, a certificate of good conduct from the alien rulers while Congress workers led by Mahatma Gandhi went to jail in their thousands.

After Independence, when Sardar Patel's' plan to allow the RSS cadres to join the Congress did not fructify, Golwalkar felt the need for some sort of political cover. He knew without political support, the RSS could virtually turn into a football in the political field. He, therefore, lent the services of four of his able cadres to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee when he founded the Jan Sangh in 1951.

Among the cadres lent were Vajpayee, endowed with consummate oratorial skill, and the mild-mannered Advani. They can hardly be blamed if, half a century later, they feel beholden to the RSS and are compelled to oblige their parent body out of sheer gratitude.

Since 1951, the RSS has always guided or directed the activities of the Jan Sangh and its latter-day avatar. Not only that, it also participated in the 1952 movement against cow slaughter and several other political agitations, including the Nav Nirman movement in Gujarat and the anti-foreigner agitation in Assam. By no stretch of the imagination can these activities be described as cultural, however loosely Vajpayee may define the adjective.

The RSS is authoritarian in its emphasis on discipline, in its refusal to recognise the specific character of minorities and in its intention of reforming the Hindu mentality absolutely to prepare the advent of a new man, implying the need to extend its sway over the whole society. It is yet to repudiate Golwalkar's original prescription.

... It does not recognise the tricolour and has reservations on the Constitution of India ... On Republic Days and Independence Days, the national flag does not fly atop the RSS headquarters at Nagpur. This is because the RSS recognises only the ochre-coloured standard associated with Shivaji. Strictly speaking, Godse may not have been a member of the RSS when he shot Mahatma Gandhi, but Gandhi Jayanti is not sacred for the RSS. Nor is the Jana Gana Mana revered. In fact, Vajpayee was virtually crucified when as the then president of the BJP he announced . that the new party "stood for Gandhian socialism, whatever it meant.

Similarly, the RSS has not yet abandoned its Akhand Bharat project. The map of India that it uses includes countries like Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tibet and Afghanistan ...

... The fears that the RSS generate are not confined to some sections alone. At one point, even Vajpayee was constrained to argue that the political activities of the RSS affiliates "do not help an organisation (the RSS) to establish its apolitical credentials. He further argued that "it is possible that some people genuinely feel apprehensive- about the RSS. A certain onus accordingly devolved on the RSS, an onus that has not been discharged effectively by the RSS".

Elaborating on this theme, he wrote, "Its (the RSS) repudiation of the theocratic state was welcomed. Yet, the question could legitimately be asked - why does it not open its doors to Muslims? Recent statements of the RSS chief, Deoras, indicate that non-Hindus are being encouraged to join the organisation.

A natural corollary of this process would be clear enunciation by the RSS that by 'Hindu Rashtra' it means the Indian nation which includes non-Hindus as equal members." (Indian Express, August 2, 1979). Two decades have passed since Vajpayee wrote this article but the RSS is yet to repudiate the fundamentals on which Hegdewar, Golwalkar and Balasaheb Deoras built up its edifice and Rajendra Singh soldiers on. Until then the fears will remain. (Source: The Indian Express, 11 February, 2000)

Mani Shankar Aiyar On Vajpayee's Lakshman Rekha

The RSS has a political programme. It was to carry -out this programme that the Jan Sangh was fielded in the political arena as the sole and authentic voice of Hindutva. The Jan Sangh might have changed both its name and its stripes but it remains quintessentially the instrument of the RSS for carrying out the Sangh Parivar's agenda for the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra..

The RSS is not some saffron equivalent of a Rotary Club. It has a holistic mission dedicated to making over the entire character of the nation, an objective which cannot be achieved without a political instrumentality in the political arena. That instrumentality is known as the BJP. Which is why when the "double-membership" controversy erupted in 1979, Vajpayee and' Advani, preferred losing their seats in the cabinet to losing their membership of the RSS.

... Vajpayee has come to the mournful conclusion that an RSS agenda cannot bring the BJP to political power - or keep it there. This is not a conviction shared by those who politically fathered him. They have not put him where he is to carry out the programme of others; they've put him there to carry out their programme. This he is not in a position to deliver. And so he pleads for a Lakshman Rekha to be drawn, and not violated, between the socio-cultural work of the Sangh Parivar and the political agenda of the BJP-led NDA. It is a distinction which the Parivar is unable to recognize, still less observe, with the scruple Vajpayce desperately needs to keep his coalition going ...

.. The Sangh Parivar ... gave Vajpayee the mandate to establish the political framework within which this remaking of India could be secured. He, however, has turned into a Ravana of secularism and, moreover, has the gall to ask the RSS to desist from invading his sphere, The RSS. understandably, refuses to be ravished in this fashion. So, for Vajpayee, there is no escaping his dilemma. He has to decide, not once for .all, but repeatedly, indeed all the time, whether he is a fully subscribed member of the RSS or leader of a secular coalition.

... Vajpayee's goals are not their goals. He wants to remain in power without purpose. The Sangh Parivar wants power with a purpose. That purpose has been clearly spelt out, nowhere more explicitly than in the RSS equivalent of Mein Kampf, Guruji Golwalkar's "We, or the Nation Defined". The BJP may disavow this unbridled work but they are still stuck with the Guruji's "Bunch of Thoughts", the Parivar's equivalent of Hitler's "Table- Talk" ... The relentless, multi-pronged assault on Vajpayee will continue. By those to whom Vajpayee owes his primary loyalty - the RSS. They broke the Morarji government. It is they who will blow the NDA apart. (Source: The Indian Express, 22 February, 2000)

RSS as Political Organisation Sajeda Momin, Asst. Editor, The Statesman

.. The repeated description by various BJP leaders of the RSS as a "socio-cultural organisations" began to sound alarm-bells within the NDA. It was obvious that they were trying to push their Hindutva plank through the back door. An acceptance of the RSS as only a cultural organisation would then legitimise their activities and their hold over the BJP ... Considering that the RSS believes in leaving no tell-tale signs around, it has no paperwork, membership list or cards and the way to membership or allegiance is to attend shakhas - which most BJP leaders have donc at some stage - the connection is pretty clear.

Former. UP chief minister and still a self-confessed member of the RSS Kalyan Singh has pointed out the Sangh's role very clearly: "I have spent a great party of my life in this organisation (RSS) and I can say that right from the distribution of election tickets in the BJP to selecting Cabinet ministers, it is only the RSS which calls the shots. What else is political activity". He should know considering he has been taking orders and acting at their behest for decades.

It was only the new-found opposition from the NDA that forced the BJP-RSS to retreat ... The RSS at this juncture cannot afford to antagonise their allies in Government and long-may this dependence continue! ...

... The RSS and the BJP have decided to control culture ... The state gives its tacit consent by dismissing it as "popular protest". Nohe of the actions being taken by the Sangh Parivar are on the NDA agenda. It is obvious that the Sangh is trying to push them in through the back door. The BJP's silence is understandable, that of the other constituents of the NDA is not.

(Source: The Statesman, 21 February, 2000)

Vajpayee Govt. and the Sangh Parivar

Editorial, Indian Express, 14 Feb., 2000

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has asked the Sangh Parivar to draw a Lakshman Rekha within which it can raise contentious issues ... That Vajpayee has a difficult task in managing the contradictions of running a heterogeneous coalition without antagonising the Parivar cannot be overemphasised. When some overzealous members of the Parivar see the government as theirs alone and are eager to have their agenda implemented, it is a sure recipe for trouble. It is yet to sink into their mind that the Vajpayee government draws its legitimacy from the election manifesto of the National Democratic Alliance ...

Besides, the liberal image of Vajpayee ... All this should have automatically forced the Parivar to draw a Lakshman Rekha on its own.

... But ... Vajpayee is not just a theologian delivering discourses on morality. He is the Prime Minister entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that the rule of law prevails in the country. Unfortunately, on the issue of Water, it was not the writ of his government ... that ran at Varanasi ... For a government which is keen to shed its image of being soft, it's no advertisement that a handful of people could nullify its decision taken after considerable deliberation and that too at the highest level.

The capitulation of the government on Water may encourage the Parivar to pursue its own diyisive agenda ... After a certain stage, some of the allies may not remain silent as Tamil Nadu chief Minister Karunanidhi has hinted. His advice not to rake up contentious issues like allowing government employees to participate in RSS activities when more important problems face the nation can be ignored only at the government's peril .... The question is what will Vajpayee do if the Parivar does not operate within the Lakshman Rekha.