The Telegraph, 17 september 2009
Sangh offers BJP Hindutva legroom
by Radhika Ramaseshan
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in Mathura on Wednesday. (PTI)
New Delhi, Sept. 16: The RSS has told the BJP that while its “core ideology” was “non-negotiable” and had to be “preached and practised” by all its affiliates, the party was free to adapt and articulate it as it wanted.
But under no circumstances could it think of expunging the ‘H’ (Hindutva) word from its dictionary.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, not a Sangh admirer, was picked as a leader who straddled the space between “ideology and governance” without confrontation as were the other BJP chief ministers.
It is learnt that this message underlined the Sangh’s preference for a regional leader to head the BJP when it was time for the present president, Rajnath Singh, to bow out rather than anoint one of the familiar names in Delhi.
The RSS recognises the difference between the BJP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The Sangh feels that while the VHP has the space to take “positions that seemed extreme”, the BJP was free to redefine, broadbase and repackage “Hindutva” to suit existing political circumstances.
Such a policy will help the BJP distance itself from the “hawkish” meaning usually read into the party’s propagation of Ayodhya, a common civil code and the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir as its central issues.
At the two-day thinkers’ meeting of the Sangh parivar last week in Mumbai, the RSS brass, playing on the global concern over climate change, picked environment as an example to “tell the world” to look “seriously” at Hinduism and Jainism for answers instead of being tied down to the Judeo-Christian concept of a “world created solely for man’s benefit and rule”.
“Hinduism and Jainism, on the other hand, contain concepts that can lead to the enhancement of core human-earth relations because they suggest that the earth can be seen as a manifestation of the goddess who must be treated with respect,” a source who attended the meeting said.
It is understood that some of the BJP’s representatives at this “exclusive” meeting of 30 said environment would not fetch the party votes as a reaffirmation of its stand on “pure nationalism”.
The deliberations did not discuss the problems that have beset the BJP in Delhi. But it is believed that the talks on the sidelines over tea-breaks and meals confirmed that:
The RSS was unlikely to brook another debate on ideology versus governance, not as long as the BJP remained in the Opposition. It felt that the first priority was to regroup and re-motivate cadres. Ideology was the “only cement”.
The Sangh wondered if the polemics at the top in Delhi on the “merits” of Jinnah versus the “de-merits” of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jinnah’s “secular” garb were “really substantive” or meant for certain individuals to grandstand before a “liberal” audience and show up the Sangh as “archaic”.
The next party president and the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha — assuming L.K. Advani gave up the post — would not necessarily be the putative PM candidate in 2014.
The thinking was that question could be settled in 2012 when Gujarat goes to polls. If Modi delivered a third victory, it might not throw him off the RSS’s radar as it was assumed after his unspectacular showing in the Lok Sabha polls.
The Maharashtra elections would be a test for the BJP. Unlike in the last elections, when the Sangh didn’t exert itself, this time around it is likely to canvass support for the BJP-Shiv Sena in its own way.
While it wished to ensure a “graceful” departure for Advani and even a post-retirement mentoring role, the RSS is apparently not going to be fazed by a bitter parting shot of the kind the leader gave when he stepped down as the BJP president in September 2005.
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