Clout gone, RSS could pull no strings

This reshuffle is only the latest indication of a slow and subtle process that has been taking place over the past few years 8212; the eclipse of the RSS as the undisputed leader of the Sangh Parivar, the self-styled sun around which its affiliates revolve like satellites. On the one hand, BJP leaders no longer treat the RSS word as their command while on the other more rambunctious affiliates, like the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, outflank the more sober swayamsevaks of the RSS on the ground.

One reason for the decline in the moral authority of the RSS, Parivar sources concede, is the personality of the current sarsanghchalak, K S Sudarshan. The persona of the sarsanghchalak carries immense weight, and RSS founder K B Hedgewar and his successor, M S Golwalkar, were both treated with absolute awe by the Sangh8217;s members and affiliates. Though Golwalkar8217;s successor, Balasaheb Deoras, was much more politically active than the ascetic 8216;Guruji8217; who kept himself above politics, Deoras too commanded a great deal of respect from the BJP leaders as did Rajendra Singh Rajju Bhaiyya who followed him.

But the current RSS chief, who took over the post in early 2000, does not command the same authority, not least because he is a lot junior to both Vajpayee and Advani in terms of years in the Parivar. Born in 1931, Sudarshan became a pracharak only in 1954, much after Vajpayee and Advani had cut their teeth in the shakhas and were promising recruits in Jana Sangh. No wonder then that when things have got sticky between the RSS and BJP brass in recent years, old RSS warhorses, such as H V Seshadri and Rajju Bhaiyya, have been called in from their outposts in Bangalore and Pune.

Sudarshan8217;s stature apart, there are more profound reasons for the decline of the RSS which the Parivar bosses are only beginning to grapple with. The irony is that even as Hindutva as an ideology has seen rapid growth in recent years, the organisational clout of the RSS has been on the wane. This clout, since the founding of the RSS in 1925, rested on the 8216;iron discipline8217; and 8216;selfless dedication8217; of the swayamsevak who patiently 8212; and silently 8212; worked among the people to spread the organisation8217;s ideology. But the patience and silence are both in short supply today, worried activists complain, with more and more swayamsevaks wanting to plunge into electoral politics, lured by the power and pelf their brethren in the BJP enjoy.

The hitherto clear distinction between the BJP worker, the Bajrang Dal activist and the RSS pracharak is getting blurred by the day, and unless a clear hierarchy and distribution of work is worked out, keeping in view today8217;s changed circumstances with the BJP in power and the VHP-Bajrang Dal on the ascendant the RSS may cease to remain the grand patriarch of India8217;s largest joint family.