PM Modi at RSS headquarters tomorrow: Why this visit is significant

“The PM will lay the foundation stone of the Madhav Netralaya Premium Centre building and share the dais with (RSS chief) Mohan Bhagwat during this event. The PM will also visit the Hedgewar Smruti Mandir, which is the RSS headquarters. After this, he will go to Deekshabhoomi, where B R Ambedkar and his followers embraced Buddhism,” Bawankule told The Indian Express.

The Hedgewar Smruti Mandir houses memorials dedicated to RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and the organisation’s second sarsanghchalak M S Golwalkar.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee had visited the memorials in 2007 while attending the centenary celebrations for Golwalkar, but he had stepped down as Prime Minister by then after the BJP lost the elections in 2004.

Modi last visited the RSS headquarters in September 2012, when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister, to attend the funeral of late RSS chief K S Sudershan.

Again in July 2013, still a CM but already the PM candidate, Modi had visited the headquarters for a meeting.

After the BJP got a thumping majority in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and Modi became the PM for the first time, it was Bhagwat who called on him in Delhi.

In public, the two have shared various spaces together, including the Ayodhya Ram temple inauguration ceremony in January last year.

What makes Modi’s Sunday visit significant is the tensions seen in the BJP’s relationship with the Sangh before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with BJP chief J P Nadda’s interview to The Indian Express saying the party no longer required hand-holding by the RSS adding to them.

However, after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, where the BJP was seen to have suffered because of the RSS keeping its distance, the two have ensured efforts to bridge the gap.

The PM too has praised the RSS. In February, while attending the three-day 98th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, he likened the RSS to a “vat vriksh (grand banyan tree)”, He said the organisation has been conducting “a sacred cultural ritual to take India’s great tradition and culture to the new generation”. The RSS, he said, had inspired “lakhs like me” to “live for our country”.

Then, in an interview with American podcastar Lex Friedman earlier this month, the PM discussed the impact the organisation had on his early life.

“Millions of people are connected to it, but understanding RSS is not that simple. One must make an effort to truly grasp the nature of its work. More than anything, the RSS provides you with a clear direction toward what can truly be called a purpose in life. Secondly, the nation is everything, and serving the people is akin to serving God … To my knowledge, they run approximately 125,000 service projects without any government assistance, solely through community support. They spend time there, teach the children, care for their health, instill good values and work towards improving cleanliness in these communities. Running 125,000 social service projects is no small feat..” Modi said.

An RSS official requesting anonymity said too much should not be read into the ups and downs of their relationship with the BJP, and that the organisation does not “interfere with BJP affairs”. “If they seek our advice, we give it to them. Sometimes it is accepted, sometimes it is not,” he said.