The RSS gets a new chief

THE APPOINTMENT OF Mr. K. S. Sudarshan as sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) may not lead to any substantive changes in the course of the outfit given its structured nature and its well-defined ideological direction. Nevertheless, the change does assume significance in the context of Mr. Sudarshan's own reputation for being a hardliner within the RSS, critical even of the ``tactical'' compromises made by the BJP in recent years. In the context of the growing sense of unease arising out of the inability of the BJP to push the sangh's own agenda - the developments involving the Gujarat Government's order lifting the ban on government employees associating with the RSS, for instance - the prathinidhi sabha and the change of guard at Nagpur assume significance. Going by the very structure of the RSS - in which the sarsanghchalak alone leads the organisation and his word is treated as a command by the cadre - Mr. Sudarshan's appointment serves as a pointer to the RSS pursuing its own agenda far more vigorously than anytime in the recent past. Mr. Sudarshan's taking over the reins of the RSS is bound to have an impact on the dynamics of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

It is indeed a fact and not just an impression that the BJP is among the organs around the RSS; and the RSS does not merely lend a helping hand to the party but guides its course systematically. For all the protestations by Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee and the others in the party or the allies in the NDA, the RSS treats the BJP as one of the 40 organisations created by it; the ABVP, the Hindu Jagran Manch, the VHP and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch are some such outfits.

Mr. Rajendra Singh as sarsanghchalak (during the past six years) was willing to consider the BJP's ``difficulties'' in pushing the Hindutva agenda to the extent the RSS would have wanted; he had no qualms in letting the BJP put on hold its stance on Article 370 of the Constitution, the Common Civil Code and the Ram mandir agenda in Ayodhya. Mr. Sudarshan was among those who did not approve of such ``pragmatism.'' The stress laid by the RSS general secretary, Mr. H. V. Seshadri, at the Nagpur meet, just after Mr. Sudarshan was anointed, that it was high time Article 370 was scrapped (he is reported to have described Article 370 as ``the springboard for separatist designs'') and the strident positions Mr. Sudarshan himself took on this issue as well as on some other core issues of the RSS suggest a sharper thrust on the part of the organisation in relation to the BJP.

All these are of concern not just in the context of ensuring the survival of the BJP-led regime at the Centre, as it manifested in the case of the Gujarat Government's order where some of the allies expressed their difficulty to vote with the Government in the event of a censure motion in the Lok Sabha. A more strident RSS pushing its exclusivist agenda is an undeniable threat to the cohesion and integration of Indian civil society. The havoc caused by the sangh parivar's campaign in the past - the trail of violence left behind by the Ayodhya campaign - has traumatised the national psyche. The likelihood of the sangh pursuing more openly its exclusivist agenda and pressuring the BJP to go along with that has only increased.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Previous : Mr. Clinton's visit to Pakistan
Next     : Dangerous nuclear uncertainties