(It) is high-voltage fusillade by any standard - the RSS denying its special ties with the BJP, worse, throwing dark hints about another liaison, at a time the BJP has finally gained power. Without doubt, the BJP-RSS relationship is in trouble ... Clearly, the RSS ire is aimed at Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee. Vajpayee has always been somewhat suspect in RSS eyes ... Not surprisingly, a guessing game has started in political circles. The scenario thought to be unfolding goes like this. (Vajpayee) will break with the RSS, after which he will run a conservative party minus Hindutva. .. However, while the RSS can switch allegiance to another party, as in fact, it did in the mid-80s, the BJP is bound to the RSS - physically and emotionally. Because of its self-assigned role as the custodian of Hindu interests, the RSS has always considered its duties as going beyond the benefactor of the Jan Sangh and the BJP. This explains why the RSS backed Indira Gandhi through Operation Bluestar and directed its cadre to mobilise support for the Congress after her assassination.

Rajiv Gandhi's 1984 mandate came at least partly courtesy the RSS which by then had accurately sensed that the Congress was game for playing the Hindu card. The biggest casualty of this magnanimity was, of course, the BJP which was reduced to the ignominy of two seats in the Lok Sabha. For the BJP, then, loss of the RSS could well mean loss of emotional sustenance, strategic counsel, electoral backing and above all the support of its own rank and file. However, the crucial question remains: Who will bell the cat ?... Should Mr. Vajpayee break free, it cannot be as a leader of the BJP, whose top echelons and the bulk of whose cadres are drawn from the RSS. He has to start alone or join another party. Will he do it?  (Source: The Times of India, 12 January, 1999)