The Hindu : RSS-BJP rift may widen

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 18, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

RSS-BJP rift may widen
By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, MARCH 17. With the RSS keen to restore the so-called Hindutva ideology to the centrestage of national polity and the Vajpayee Government equally keen to complete its five-year term, the new tension between the `swayamsevaks' in Government and those outside can only get worse in the coming months.

After the Gujarat violence and the resounding slap in the face of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Government by the Supreme Court's interim order on March 13, and after the VHP's hooliganism in Bhubaneswar where the State Assembly was attacked, the RSS' make-belief that its views represent the feelings or ``aspirations'' of Hindus in this country is outrageous, unless one has come to the conclusion that the majority community here is keen to emulate the Taliban by making religion (or a particular interpretation of religion) the focal point of governance.

And much as the Vajpayee Government would like to please the RSS bosses - it went out of its way to pacify the VHP during the recent Ayodhya crisis - it also knows that there is a `lakshman rekha', a constitutional limit, it cannot cross without giving up the Government.

The VHP may go on talking about the need for legislation to resolve the Ayodhya dispute - it has repeatedly cited the reversal of the Shah Bano judgment by legislation as its alibi - but the stark truth is that the BJP has a Prime Minister but it does not have a majority in its own Government. Therefore, it cannot pass any legislation without the help of its allies in the Lok Sabha and without the consent of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. And no majority for the BJP is equal to the fact that the majority of the people in this country do not subscribe to the RSS view of Hindutva, they do not want the Talibanisation of Hinduism.

``It will be a big mistake to ride the Hindutva tiger again unless we decide that we want to remain in the Opposition permanently,'' a senior party leader in Government said. But the party cadre outside the Government is getting restless, and the call by the just concluded three-day Pratinidhi Sabha of the RSS in Bangalore to all ``Hindutva devoted workers'' to ``struggle'' to get a Ram temple at the `janmasthan' (disputed site where the Babri Masjid stood) does not augur well for the Government. After all, the VHP has not yet given up its demand for 42 acres of the acquired land in Ayodhya to be handed over to the Nyas controlled by it ``before June 2.''

Many party leaders want the BJP to go back to where it came from and to strengthen its ties with the RSS. Even the party president, Jana Krishnamurthi, had indicated that the BJP was committed to keeping in abeyance its Hindutva agenda only till 2004, till the life of this Government.

Many BJP leaders admit in private that the temple issue is dead, that it cannot fetch them any votes. In short, it is no longer an issue of ``national sentiments'' or ``national aspirations.'' On the other hand, a large number of BJP activists are aware that coalition politics has robbed them of their Hindutva ideology and they blame this distance from Hindutva for the electoral reverses. This view is stronger among the cadre, those not in Government positions. They have little to lose by giving up allies and going back to playing politics with religion.

The debate and discussion in the party has not yet taken place at any formal level, but the pressure being put by the RSS, even its threat of completely distancing itself from the BJP (an RSS spokesperson had stated in Bangalore two days ago that it has nothing to do with the BJP except for the fact that ``some swayamsevaks'' are in the BJP), is bound to impact on a party which is already reeling under successive electoral reverses. As the tension between the RSS and BJP grows, RSS insiders say that they no longer care whether the Vajpayee Government survives or falls. And the organisation could decide not to work for the BJP unless during the rest of the Government's tenure some major concessions are made to Hindutva. The Ayodhya issue could become the touchstone.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

Stories in this Section

Scandalous decision on LPG

Towards a Palestine State?

Crossing all limits

Ayodhya: what stakes do OBCs have?

A dangerous mix

RSS-BJP rift may widen