

The world of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is never a static one. It has seen a changing political scenario, from the National Democratic Alliance holding the RSS, the mothership of the Bharatiya Janata Party, at arm’s length during its first stint in power, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi making no bones about owing his success to “the sacrifices of generations of nationalists”. These shifting power equations have wrought interesting alliances between the Sangh Parivar and the government.



Modi sits firmly at the apex of the NDA-RSS-BJP power pyramid, with his loyal aide Amit Shah heading the party and his own grip on government tightening by the day. As for the RSS and the many sub-species within its ecosystem, some of which had opposed Modi, they’re adapting accordingly.

For his part, Modi displays none of the self-consciousness of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his cohorts, whose courtship of secular liberals within media and academia kept the RSS at a safe distance. That was a policy which resulted in frequent skirmishes between Vajpayee and the Sangh, mainly over economic policy and once, spectacularly, over the Ram Temple. The acrimony reached a point where an RSS publication termed Vajpayee’s policies anti-national, and iconic RSS leader Dattopant Thengadi refused to accept the Padma Bhushan in disgust.

Modi prefers to take the Sangh along. His very first speech in Parliament (after being elected leader by the parliamentary party) was peppered with quotes from Deendayal Upadhyaye, lifelong RSS pracharak and key leader of the BJP’s precursor, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. Every important decision and appointment over the last month has involved a negotiation between the RSS, BJP and government, with Modi having the last word. The RSS has been pragmatic (and prudent), acquiescing to Modi when he doesn’t agree with their stand. For instance, the appointment of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi was delayed for a fortnight while the RSS argued against it and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for it.

Given the global community’s enthusiastic embrace of Modi and the Indian electorate’s disenchantment with competitive minority-pandering (going by Congressman AK Antony’s analysis of his party’s merciless drubbing at the hustings), the RSS is more mainstream than it’s ever been. And courtesy Narendra Modi, it has entered the building.

Any doubts on that score were set to rest by the turnout at senior RSS leader Madan Das Devi’s 72nd birthday celebration last week. Devi is a member of the six-member RSS core committee and was in charge of BJP affairs during the previous NDA regime. Modi called first thing in the morning to wish the veteran pracharak, with whom he has an excellent personal chemistry. He didn’t make it to the party, but half the Union council of ministers did. Gatecrashers outnumbered invitees, despite the fact that the get-together was intended to be quiet.

From time to time, in keeping with its tradition of generational change, the RSS sends its brightest young men to its political wing: Deendayal Upadhyaye, Nanaji Deshmukh, Lal Kishen Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were sent to the Jan Sangh and KN Govindacharya and Sanjay Joshi to the BJP.

A couple of days before Amit Shah took over as president of the BJP, two equally significant appointments were made. Ram Madhav and Shiv Prakash, RSS pracharaks both, were deputed to the BJP. In his new role (likely to be general secretary) Ram Madhav – so far the best known public face of the RSS – should be considered second only to Amit Shah, a move that offers a glimpse of the internal workings of Modi, the BJP and the Sangh.

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The post of RSS pravakta (spokesperson) was specifically created for Ram Madhav in 2003 in an organization that, until then, had adhered to the concept of prasidhi parimukhta (literally, avoiding the spotlight). Madhav communicated the Sanghi view to the world, interpreted the enigmatic pronouncements of the RSS top brass and did the odd bit of firefighting when they suffered from foot-in-mouth (as former sarsanghchalak KS Sudarshan was wont to do). His special appointment was in some ways a fallout of the 2002 Gujarat riots, as the RSS realized it needed to open channels to the media. Subsequently, the softspoken yet articulate Madhav’s skillful handling of the media attracted Modi’s attention.

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