Like the BJP, there are nearly a hundred other organisations affiliated to and guided by the Sangh, but with functional autonomy to chart out their own programmes, set their goals and targets and decide the way to achieve them within the 'larger Hindutva framework'. joining hands with forces once opposed to the BJP, or individuals tainted with corruption and criminal charges, therefore, remains purely a concern for the BJP. The party wields that much autonomy and knows that the Sangh will not come in the way. For the Sangh, this is only an apaad dharma that the BJP has been following.
Through its various other activities, the RSS will now concentrate on its expansion, and will certainly benefit from having its own governments - though with the vices and vulnerability of a coalition.
RSS chief Rajendra Singh's message to the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidh Sabha (ABPS), the Sangh's plenary which concluded on March 22 in Bangalore, was: "Sangh volunteers are expected to exploit such a pro-Hindutva atmosphere towards a durable and permanent growth, specially in areas where they have failed so far".
Yet the Sangh expects to continue with its undiluted world view with Hindutva as its central theme. Its goals are much beyond a BJP government, or a coalition led by it ... A government for the RSS is just a means. That is why the RSS is unlikely to make any compromise on its agenda could be criticism for the government ... After all, Sangh's prominent ideologue and joint general secretary K.S. Sudershan did not desist from publicly criticising BJP's soft-pedalling the Hindutva issue on the eve of elections.
Even as the BJP shows sign of transformation into a mass base party, Sangh volunteers still form the BJP's cadre across the country. Also, about 134 full-time pracharaks of the Sangh are loaned to occupy key policy and strategy making bodies of the party. Besides, more than 75 per cent of the party's national executive members have RSS background.
The Sangh takes the mandate of '98 as the rejection of the propaganda that 'pro-Hindutva forces' are anti- secular ... That the analysis does match almost word by word with that of BJP president and Home Minister L.K. Advani - himself a former pracharak - is not a mere coincidence. Advani had expressed similar sentiments and views while proposing Vajpayee as leader of the BJP and allies in Parliament ...
The Sangh's annual report submitted to the Plenary makes a special mention of Advani is someone to have undertaken a 'veritable national tapasya'. ... A tribute to Advani, a key figure in the Cabinet can only be a testament of hope and faith in the government as well its limitations. That is why it readily approved omission of issues such as scrapping Article 370 from the Constitution, ban on cow slaughter and the Ayodhya temple. Yet, the Sangh succeeded in imposing its views on secularism on over a dozen BJP allies. Reiterating that "we are committed to establishing a civilised, humane and just civil order, that which does not discriminate on grounds of caste, religion, class, colour, race or sex, we will truly and genuinely uphold and practice the concept of secularism consistent with the Indian tradition of 'equal respect for all faiths' and on the basis of equality of all", the Sangh has positioned itself against the forces it calls `pseudo-secularists' ...
Also with the new government, the Sangh's missionary activities especially in the field of education, will get official recognition and cooperation. There could be special measures in certain pockets of some north- eastern States like carving out special autonomous district councils to protect 'minority Hindus'. Also the Sangh's grievance for several years that Indian missions abroad 'do not cooperate with their representatives abroad' may get redressed ...
There are still areas which can brew trouble between the coalition government and the Sangh ... But for the Sangh - with many ups and downs in its 73-year existence that saw it being banned thrice - the rapid growth in terms of sakhas is a bigger achievement. The #eport suggests that there are about 130,000 regular activities that include 42,000 daily sakhas in addition to weekly gatherings all over the country. They are the real carriers of the Sangh's message. And the BJP-led government will have a three-way responsibility: delivery, managing the contradiction among allies and acting as the Sangh's political machinery to translate its world view ... (Source: The Indian Express, 27 March, 1998)
