New Delhi: Flexing its muscles and seeking reports from the Centre, the RSS has sent a clear signal that despite perceptions in the BJP, the party is not a “one-man show”. Some insiders claimed that PM Narendra Modi’s attendance at the RSS stock-taking meet was an effort to mend ties with the Sangh Parivar supremo.
A BJP leader pointed out that the message delivered in the meet made it clear that “no matter how big or popular you are, you cannot be bigger than the RSS”.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh, speaking in Pune on Saturday, tried to clarify that the RSS was “not running the government”. Justifying the PM’s and his Cabinet colleagues’ move to submit reports on the performance of the government, the home minister said both he and Mr Modi were “swayamsevaks”.
According to reports from Pune, he said: “I want to clarify to everyone that I am an RSS swayamsevak, the PM is an RSS swayamsevak, and no one should have any problem with that.”
This was reminiscent of the Janata Parivar days when BJP heavyweights Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani walked out of the Janata Party government when they were asked to choose between staying in the Cabinet or being members of the RSS. With a brute majority in the Lok Sabha, the Modi government has no such worries, though.
A senior BJP functionary said the RSS decided “to step in and take control” as the image of the Modi government started taking a hit following controversies and reported “failure” on the economic front. It was apparently under RSS pressure that the Modi government decided to accept the demand for one rank, one pension.
As for mending ties, some believe the RSS was upset with the Modi government’s moves to take “unilateral decisions, without consulting or getting clearance from the RSS” on various issues relating to the land bill and other reforms. There are whispers in saffron corridors that the RSS-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh decided to withdraw from the trade union strike “only after the Modi government assured that it was ready to toe the Sangh line”.
While what the ministers, who have sworn an oath of secrecy, divulged to the RSS is a matter of speculation, the Opposition, particularly the Congress, is up in arms.
