|
|||||
|
THERE has been a change in the focus of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the leading member of the Sangh Parivar, and it became quite perceptible between its October 2005 national executive at Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh and the February 2006 national council (prathinidhi sabha) meet at its headquarters in Nagpur. The shift is from internal matters - earlier it was constantly engaged in wrangling with the leadership of its political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party, on ideological and organisational questions - to external, socio-political goals, such as reviving the pursuit of its core Hindutva agenda and exploiting the differences among secular forces.
A series of programmes organised by Sangh Parivar outfits and some significant political interventions by the RSS bore ample evidence of this shift. The former included the Dharam Sansad of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad held on February 1 and 2 at Allahabad and the Shabari Kumbh Mela organised in the Dangs district in Gujarat by a clutch of organisations led by the VHP. The interventions made by the RSS to make the BJP support the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's vote against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its guidance to the BJP to exploit differences among the secular forces also fit into this larger pattern.
One of the principal factors that facilitated the shift was the change of guard in the BJP in late 2005. The RSS waged a long battle to effect it. At Chitrakoot, sarkaryavah (general secretary) Mohan Bhagwat said that the organisation viewed the state of affairs in the BJP as "asthir" (unsettled) and the party's "gati" (pace) in carrying out ideological and organisational reforms as "slow". He added that the RSS was "waiting and watching" whether the BJP would adopt the "right direction" in the future. By all indications, the RSS believes that the BJP has taken steps towards adopting the "right direction" with the change of leadership.
However, by way of caution, the RSS is sticking to the Chitrakoot decision to make concerted efforts to highlight the importance of other Parivar organisations, such as the VHP, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), while cutting the BJP leadership to size. It was decided that the moves would acquire concrete shape in February, when the Parivar was to start the birth centenary celebrations of M.S. Golwalkar, the second sarsanghchalak of the RSS.
All recent programmes have followed the Chitrakoot script. The first was the Dharam Sansad, a parliament of Hindu sants and mahants, according to the VHP. The most significant development at the Dharam Sansad was the passage of a 13-point "Hindu charter", which VHP international secretary Pravin Togadia described as a "blueprint" of Hindutva initiatives. It included oft-repeated Sangh Parivar slogans such as a ban on cow slaughter, purification of the Ganga and imposition of a common civil code. Its central point, however, was the decision to develop a "Hindu vote bank" to counter the alleged "Muslim vote bank".
The Dharam Sansad asserted that "it is time that Hindus developed a vote bank of their own to pressurise all political parties to protect and advance the interests of the Hindu community, cutting across barriers of caste". The meet decided to entrust the VHP with the task of building up this vote bank. Togadia said: "We will enlist 3,000 Hindus in every Assembly constituency and 15,000 in every Lok Sabha constituency who will take a pledge to support and work for only that candidate who gives a public assurance to protect and promote Hindu interests at the State and national levels."
Significantly, the proposal fits in with the Chitrakoot decision to minimise the importance of the BJP and its leadership. If nothing else, the VHP volunteers would act as a pressure group against the "wavering lot" in the BJP. Togadia's assertion that no party would have monopoly over Hindu votes is already being read in such terms by large sections in the Sangh Parivar. Sarsanghchalak Sudarshan, addressing the Dharam Sansad, assured the participants that the RSS would see to it that the resolutions passed there would be implemented. He asserted that "the time has come for the entire Hindu society to stand up and show its full strength".
While the plans to evolve a "Hindu vote bank" was kicked off at the Dharam Sansad, the Shabari Kumbh Mela was a advertised as an event meant "to promote self-respect and confidence among the Vanvasis [the Sangh Parivar's word for Adivasis] as well as to resist and revert conversions to Christianity engineered by missionaries". The mela, though attended by an array of Hindutva leaders, was not as effective as visualised by the Parivar leadership. The majority of Adivasis of the Dangs region stayed away, though it was apparently organised to get them back in the Hindutva fold.
But there are enough indications that the "demographic shift caused in India by the machinations and growth of (minority) Muslim and Christian population" will be a major campaign plank for the Sangh Parivar. Sudarshan has stressed this in many meetings and publicly exhorted the Hindu community to ignore family planning in order to ensure that India does not become a "Muslim-dominated society". According to Parivar insiders, Sudarshan sent a letter to all leaders of Sangh Parivar outfits asking them to evolve campaign plans highlighting the issue. There are also indications that the focus of the "anti-minorityism campaign" will be on Muslims. This is in accordance with the communal slogan of the VHP - "Pehle kasai, phir Isai" (Frst Muslims, then Christians.
According to informed sources in the Sangh Parivar, the RSS intervention to guide the BJP's reactions to the Indian government's vote at the IAEA was broadly based on this precept. A senior VHP functionary from Jharkhand said that some BJP leaders, particularly the supporters of Advani, felt that the party should make use of the opposition to the Iran vote by the Left parties and the Samajwadi Party to try and bring down the Central government. But the RSS ruled that out, advising against any move that would serve "Muslim interests".
The RSS seems to have laid out a tactical line vis-a-vis the BJP's alignments with non-Congress centrist parties and it revolves around this communal perception. The VHP functionary said the RSS had given the green signal to Rajnath Singh to align with non-Congress centrist parties when they are dictated by anti-Congress feelings and realpolitik considerations but not on issues that help minority interests.
This line was reflected in the way in which the RSS justified the BJP's deal with the breakaway Janata Dal (Secular) group in Karnataka. An editorial in Organiser, the RSS mouthpiece, found great political value in the Karnataka developments and exhorted the BJP to wean away parties such as the Telengana Rashtra Samiti in Andhra Pradesh and the Asom Gana Parishad in Assam and the Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana from secular formations.
It came up with a rather strange comment that "the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh is in a frantic search for new alliances". The editorial stated that "a certain degree of unconventional adventurism is often considered good politics in times of national calamity" and that "the UPA is nothing less than a national disaster".
Printer friendly
page
|
