While the BJP has always been the electoral wing of the RSS, and the Sangh the ideological wellspring of the BJP and a host of parivar organisations, it was in the 2014 elections that the RSS came to the front of its electoral wing and played a decisive role.
Three days before the BJP formally declared Mr Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate, on September 13, 2013, the RSS issued a statement endorsing him. RSS spokesman Ram Madhav said the organisation had conveyed to the BJP its choice. “RSS’s job is not to convince the BJP but convey the nation’s mood to the party.”
Two things were clear: the RSS interfered in important decisions of the party, in this case the most important; second, it was the RSS that gauged the mood of the nation not the BJP. This endorsement in the case of Mr Modi was in sharp contrast to the grudging endorsement given to L.K. Advani.
More than anybody else, Mr Modi knows that the road to Delhi from Ahmedabad was through Nagpur. His victory is, yes, due to his charisma to a large extent but also the role, the micro-level campaign and management done by RSS and its network of organisations played, was electrifying. Mr Modi has a difficult task, that of finding a balance between the expectations raised during the campaign and the demands of governance. To put it another way: to balance between the core agenda of the RSS and the core agenda of his government.
It is on the platform of development that Mr Modi campaigned and it may be claimed he won the elections. But it has been known all along that he actually represents a militant form of Hindutva, the ideology of the RSS.
The strategy of Mr Modi seems to be to combine the agendas of development and Hindutva. He plans to do it by the neoliberal ‘Modi-fication’ of Hindutva.
The neo-liberal Hindutva campaign has a history at least from the early nineties. In December 2012, on the 20th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid, in an article, Swapan Das Gupta said it was a necessary prelude to the economic prosperity that followed. “Finally the Ayodhya years coincided with the gravest crisis of the ideological consensus forged by Jawaharlal Nehru. The disintegration of the Soviet Union, the rise of radical Islam in the neighbourhood and the failure of the socialistic way to deliver economic growth led to old shibboleths being questioned.
Coming in the face of this uncertainty, Ayodhya pushed the old order over the cliff. Later on India moved tentatively towards market economics, material prosperity and a more pragmatic relationship with the rest of the world”.
One good example of the combination of neoliberalism and RSS agenda during the Vajpayee regime. It was then that the neoliberal agenda was given a strong push.
At the same time a Hindutva agenda was followed in education and it became known as “saffronisation”. Neo-liberalism and “saffronisation” can go together.
The major tests will be with regard to Ram temple at Ayodhya, uniform civil code and Article 370. In pursuing his development agenda Mr Modi will attempt to develop the Hindutva project.
The advantage of Mr Modi is that he is a darling of corporations as well as the RSS. His success will depend on how he resolves conflicts that may arise between areas of government policy and the core of RSS ideology. It will be a tight-rope walk.
(The writer is former director of the World Council of Churches’ Commission on International Affairs)
