Journalism of Courage
Worried over dissent in the Delhi BJP over the induction and naming of Kiran Bedi as the chief ministerial candidate, the RSS has instructed its cadre to mobilise support for the party in the assembly elections like “kabaddi players who hold their breath till the time they touch opponents and return home safe”.
At meetings on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, when RSS workers complained about BJP leaders and reported “negative feedback” from campaign trails, Sahsarkaryavah Krishna Gopal, RSS in-charge of BJP affairs, told them to “work for the BJP like one plays kabaddi”.
The message was clear: do not get involved in BJP’s internal politics, just do the job of mobilising support and return to the parent body.
Over 200 representatives from 40 Sangh-affiliated organisations — minus the BJP — attended the Monday meeting and another 100 RSS workers showed up the next day.
Sources said Krishna Gopal asked workers to give an honest feedback and this prompted many to complain about BJP leaders, and how
the central government was “not paying any attention” to their demands. A woman at the meeting, who was upset over the induction of “outsiders” into the BJP, said she would “really have to think twice” about voting for the party this time.
At the Monday meeting, around 70 workers spoke, many annoyed with the government for “ignoring” them. Sources said a Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh representative complained that the central government had “done nothing” for auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers and contract labourers in Delhi.
“In the Lok Sabha election, we spent from our pockets and worked for the BJP. But after forming the government, they are not listening to us,” the BMS representative was quoted as having said. He even named two central ministers who refused to meet them.
Some at the meeting expressed “anguish” over the induction of Kiran Bedi. One lawyer from the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad — a Sangh body working among advocates — said lawyers in the city were initially upset over her induction since she, as a police officer, had ordered a lathicharge on them. But the lawyers, he said, have since calmed down.
Krishna Gopal, the sources said, assured the workers that he would convey concerns and their problems would be resolved: “Aap ki baat uchit jagah pahuncha di jayegi… yeh sab kuchh hamein theek karna hoga “ At the same time, he told them to go all out and mobilise support for the BJP.
