The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

As Sangh chief Bhagwat speaks up, decipherin­g the signals to the BJP

For the RSS, more than a reset, a Modi bound by the compulsion­s of coalition politics may provide an opportunit­y to reconfigur­e equations with the BJP

and that the situation in Manipur required urgent attention.

Bhagwat did not stop with this speech. On Saturday, he held two closed-door meetings with Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur. It was the Sangh’s backing that had turned the tables in Yogi’s favour in 2017 and helped him get the top job. Bhagwat’s meeting with Adityanath at this juncture signals the Sangh’s support to the CM who, it was said during the campaign, could be moved out of UP after the elections.

But why did the RSS chief speak out? Was it meant to be a wake-up call for the BJP leadership and if it was not does the RSS have in it to act if its chief’s words are not heeded?

For all his reported unhappines­s in the last few years about some of the goings-on in the BJP, the RSS chief did not speak out against the party or the government in this fashion. Bhagwat pulled out all the stops in 2013’14 to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister. In his first year as PM, Modi took his entire Cabinet to meet RSS leaders.

Unlike his predecesso­rs, such as K S Sudarshan who publicly told Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani to make way for younger leaders, Bhagwat is known to speak in a nuanced fashion. But his words this time have sent a signal to the Sangh Parivar. “The sarsangcha­lak’s words show he is very upset and it is a signal for us in the BJP also to speak out,” said a swayamseva­k in Pune. An article by a senior RSS figure critical of the BJP has appeared in the Sangh-linked journal Organiser while senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar has blamed the BJP’S “arrogance” for the loss of its majority.

Though Modi has fulfilled the RSS’S core agenda such as the constructi­on of the Ayodhya Ram Temple and the abrogation of Article 370, and has taken steps towards a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), the Sangh’s unhappines­s is said to stem essentiall­y from his “unilateral style of functionin­g”.

The RSS has also taken note of BJP president J P Nadda’s remarks, in an interview to The Indian Express last month, that the party did not need handholdin­g by the

Sangh anymore and had acquired capabiliti­es of its own.

The RSS reacted by saying that it was “not the field force of the BJP”. During the Lok Sabha elections, an unhappy RSS did not campaign in some parts in some states as it did in the past and this was no secret. But it is hardly in its interest to see a government in place, one that will undo its agenda.

Though the RSS chief has spoken in a conciliato­ry fashion about the role of the Opposition, the Congress of 2024 is not the party that Indira Gandhi headed in the 1970s and 1980s. The RSS saw her as a leader of Hindus and helped her win in 1980. After her assassinat­ion in 1984, it supported Rajiv Gandhi.

The Sangh may want to use the opportunit­y of a Modi, bound by the compulsion­s of coalition politics, to reconfigur­e its equations with the Modi-led

BJP and facilitate more space in the party for senior leaders who had been sidelined in recent years. Soon after the results, there was a flurry of meetings between the Sangh and the BJP leadership, attended by among others Dattatreya Hosabale, Arun Kumar, Suresh Soni, B L Santhosh, Nadda, Amit Shah, and Rajnath Singh.

A concerned RSS leadership made a case for strengthen­ing the BJP’S organisati­on, keeping it separate from the government, and not having, as an insider put it, “yes-men” lead it.

The PM too may agree to peace with the Sangh. He has to stabilise his government and try and win crucial state elections in Maharashtr­a, Haryana, and Jharkhand that are due later this year, and in Delhi and Bihar in 2025. Going by the Lok Sabha results, the BJP will need the RSS’S backing to retrieve some of the lost ground.

Modi, however, is unlikely to allow himself to be buffeted around or suffer in silence. While choosing his Cabinet, he drew a firm line by keeping the heavyweigh­t portfolios with the BJP, reinforcin­g an impression of continuity and political stability. Unlike other coalitions – with Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh in charge – this one has 240 seats for the dominant party. The PM can be expected to bide his time for the moment when he can turn the tables on all those out to chasten him today. But then, he can only play with the cards he has been dealt with. The RSS also knows only too well the benefits that have accrued to it since 2014.

(Neerja Chowdhury, Contributi­ng Editor, The Indian Express, has covered the last 11 Lok Sabha elections. She is the author of How Prime Ministers Decide)