Itu Chaudhuri Design/Catch News
RSS-BJP TIES
Need a favour from the government? Contact your local RSS man
The relationship
- Media reports suggest that there are major differences between RSS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- This is far from the truth. In reality, the two are complementary and feed into each other's power.
- Mohan Bhagwat summons Amit Shah to Nagpur almost every month.
- But the best way to understand the BJP-RSS equation is to examine it on the ground.
The ground reality
- A participant observation of the RSS office in Allahabad shows people are approaching RSS functionaries to get work done.
- This includes contractors and businessmen bidding for projects and professors aspiring to be vice-chancellor.
- People find it easier to go through RSS functionaries than BJP leaders because of an agent culture.
The reason
- RSS functionaries are becoming intermediaries between the people and the BJP government.
- As RSS worked hard for the BJP's victory in 2014, they have become an important point of contact for people.
Are the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Prime
Minister Narendra Modi at loggerheads? If certain reports in the media
are to be believed, Modi has been trying to contain the RSS' influence
and rein in the hate-mongers in the larger Sangh Parivar. The truth
isn't so simple. The RSS and BJP are complementary to each other.
The
few disagreements that the media has been citing, are completely
superficial. The fact that RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat summons BJP
president Amit Shah to Nagpur almost every month, shows that the BJP's
umbilical cord to its parent organisation is very much intact.
Also, Modi's silence on the ghar wapsi
drive or on Bhagwat's jibes at Mother Teresa, can be seen as consent.
But the proper way to understand the relationship between the BJP
government and the Sangh is by examining how it works on the ground.
RSS functionaries as power brokers
Our
method was to study how people are approaching the RSS in order to get
benefits from the BJP government. It has been a year since the Modi
government was formed and we can now see that a culture of power is
reaching the grassroots. By doing a participant observation of everyday
life in RSS offices in Allahabad, Varanasi and Delhi we can discern the
RSS' growing influence on the government.
We
studied the profiles of the people who visited the RSS offices in
Varanasi and Allahabad over 10 days and made some interesting
observations. We found that most of the people were businessmen and
traders, contractors, builders, officers, a few NGO activists, and a few
professors of local universities who were aspiring to become
vice-chancellors.
On the other hand the people
visiting BJP offices included students and youth who want to become
political leaders, agents who promised to get people's work done, and of
course party workers and volunteers. In the RSS office it was easier
for people to get their work done directly without going through dalals
(agents). In the BJP office, access was more difficult because of the
'influential political leader' culture. The institution of agents was
more dominant in BJP offices and their surroundings.
In comparison, builders, businessmen, contractors and common people found it more convenient to approach RSS functionaries.
"Sangh
people have more influence on the BJP government. Here (in the Sangh
office) there are no discussions on bribe or sycophancy," a visitor at a
local Sangh office told one of our researchers.
"However,
Sangh members will help you only if they feel assured that you are a
Hindu sympathiser and that you want to associate with the Sangh. Having a
relative attached to the Sangh also helps," the visitor added.
In
the Allahabad district Sangh office, we observed a builder who, after
talking to the district pracharak for two-three hours on Hindu culture,
quietly passed him a paper while whispering something in his ear.
At
the office, our team members also came across a Allahabad University
professor who wanted to push his case for appointment as
vice-chancellor. He was aspiring for the post of VC and had come to take
the blessings of the district pracharak. They were told that the
professor already had the blessings of Ashok Singhal, an important RSS
official.
After collecting the petitions from all
the people, the district pracharak of RSS took direct action. While for
some people he promptly called up local BJP leaders, for others he
promised that he would forward their requests to the concerned person in
the party. In a few cases, he advised the petitioners to meet
particular BJP leaders at the national headquarters.
Among
the people we surveyed at the Allahabad district office of the RSS over
the 10 days of our study, 40% were contractors, 4.5% were builders,
3.5% were professors, 5.5% were NGO activists, and around 100 were
government officers. The Sangh, which earlier denied any interference
with the government, now appears to be quite willing to act as
intermediaries between the BJP government and the people.
Sangh: the connection between people and government
As
the RSS worked hard at the grassroots level for the BJP's victory in
the 2014 elections. From booth management to transporting people to the
polling booth, RSS workers were an important point of contact for many
voters. As a result, people feel that they have the right to request RSS
workers to intervene on their behalf if they have any problem with the
BJP government.
Secondly, the Sangh is emerging
as an intermediary between the BJP government and the people, bypassing
the growing influence of agents and dalals in the government.
Thirdly,
in popular perception, the role of RSS in the BJP's power structure is
very clear. Recently, when the Vice Chancellor of a Central University
was appointed, everyone commented on the role played by an important RSS
leader in his selection. During the earlier BJP regime when anyone
obtained an important academic post, people used to comment on the role
of important BJP leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi, Rajnath Singh and
Kalraj Mishra in the appointment.
But now the
role of Sangh members in any important academic appointment is
discussed. Thus the people find it worth their while to cultivate RSS
members in order to get ahead and get their work done.
But
what is the Sangh getting in return except expanding their group of
sympathisers? After the work is done how do the people express their
gratitude to the Sangh and to the RSS worker who helped them? Given the
secretive manner in which the RSS functions, these questions won't be
easy to answer.
The views expressed here are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the organisation.