Grow up

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s supreme leader,Mohan Bhagwat,has so far said all the right things — by which it can be inferred he has said practically nothing,if at great length. The RSS,we are told,does not intend to fix the Bharatiya Janata Party,its errant progeny; but the BJP had better shape up. The RSS will not mandate who fills which role in the party’s structure; but the party had better get end its unseemly infighting now. Whether that message has hit home is not certain; but the flurry of meeting between the party’s and the Sangh’s top brass does seem to indicate that something is about to give.

The Sangh’s holier-than-thou attitude about BJP infighting,of course,may not be as universally supportable as it woiuld like. There have been enough well-substantiated incidents of second-rung RSS functionaries taking more than a neutral,observer’s stance in the BJP’s state-level decision-making — the people expelled dissident Jaswant Singh called “suvidhabhogis”,addicted to convenience. But if the RSS’ national-level leadership wishes to set a different,distanced tone,that could be welcome. What is certainly still open to question is how much that tone continues behind closed doors — and how much elements within the BJP will use the RSS’ approval or disapproval in their internal manoeuvring. But that will not remain a secret for long. One way or another,we will know soon: for the BJP and the RSS have come to a fork in the road,and how the RSS handles the BJP,and the BJP handles the RSS in this transition,will decide what sort of relationship they enjoy going forward.

Will that be the one that Mohan Bhagwat has announced is the preferred one? That the RSS,like the President of India,does not give orders,but certainly retains the right to advise,counsel and warn? Will it be closer,with the Sangh’s sanction,real or imagined,required for the broad ideological thrusts of the party,even in economic and foreign policy,and a quiet nod of approval expected for those filling major party posts? Or will it be more distant still,perhaps merely as a source of the intellectual heft of one strand of party thought? These are the options facing the BJP’s leaders now; they must realise that more will be settled in the next few days than their career paths for the next couple of years. The RSS can only be the BJP’s umpire-in-perpetuity at the cost of the party’s plan,if there is indeed any,to make itself a modern centre-right political entity.