EDUCATION, CULTURE: TIES THAT BIND RSS-BJP
ADHIWAKTA PARISHAD SEWA BHARATI
The Jan Sangh was set up in 1951. Just before the 1977 elections, it was merged with the Janata Party. RSS loyalists left the party on the issue of dual membership and the BJP came into existence in April 1980. It celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. An educational wing of the RSS, it runs over 13,000 schools with 35 lakh students across the country. It started from Gorakhpur, UP with Shishu Mandir (nursery). look like “proper” Hindu homes with Hindu gods adorning the walls or a tulsi plant in the garden. Of course, the message has to be put out gently to achieve any degree of success. “We have to condition the style of our interaction to the people we are meeting. One can’t just reach out to an ex-serviceman and give a discourse on nationalism,” an RSS functionary said. “It is understood that they have imbibed it to the core. So we have to ask them to know us better as we share their national vision.” The task isn’t easy. It involves cold calling to fix appointments and sometimes facing rude responses. However, even as its activity and the composition of its membership expands, the daily shakha — a coming together of volunteers each morning for 40 minutes of sharirik (physical exercises) and 20 minutes of bauddhik (ideological discourse) — remains the RSS’ basic tool for spreading its influence. The shakhas have been held in neighbourhood parks across the country since 1925, when the Sangh was founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. The Sangh has been reaching out to different segments of society — industrial workers, students, tribals or farmers — through allied organisations from around the time of independence. These allied organisations came up when individual RSS volunteers began to work autonomously in a particular field. “The Sangh does nothing; the Swayamsevak leaves nothing,” quipped an RSS functionary, suggesting that the Sangh promotes its allies from the sidelines, shunning publicity.
With shakhas spread across India and allied organisations like the BJP, ABVP, and BMS doing well, the Sangh now wants volunteers to fan out. ‘Spread Hindu values or engage in some social activity in villages or towns to reach out to more people,’ the mantra goes. An RSS volunteer underlined the centrality of conventions within the organisation: “The Sangh does not deviate from paddhati (conventional ways). It took us 80 years just to change the belt in our uniform (gana-vesh). We stand firm on our core values.” In a rapidly changing world, this adherence to core values is, perhaps, what makes the RSS as attractive to its emerging membership of IT and corporate followers as it is to members drawn from more traditional circles. The RSS students’ wing was set up on July 9, 1949. Almost all senior BJP and RSS stalwarts, including PM Narendra Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, have served in the ABVP in different capacities. An organisation of RSS loyalist lawyers that works among lawyers, jurists and law academicians. It was set up in 1992 The largest trade union organisation in the country strongly opposes Modi’s labour law reforms and pushing of economic reforms. RSS leader Dattopant Thengdi founded the BMS in 1955. It has over 94 lakh members. Set up to re-write history by proving that aspects of Hindu mythology are factual. Established in 1973 at Nagpur.
Though the RSS has not been entirely appreciative of the style of functioning of PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, it has allowed them a ‘free hand’ to ensure smooth functioning of the government. A senior RSS leader, who preferred anonymity, said: “It is like love-hate relationship between the RSS and the Modi-Shah duo.” The latter’s widely perceived “autocratic” style of functioning without taking senior functionaries of the party and government into confidence and their “pro-corporate” image has been among the sore points for the RSS, a sizeable number of RSS swayamsevaks here said. However, senior swayamsevak Virag Pachpore says the BJP, the Modi government and the RSS share a good rapport.
“It’s purely media’s figment of imagination of chinks in the saffron relationship. RSS knows the limitations of the government as it has to function under the constitutional framework. It would not insist on things that are unconstitutional,” he said. RSS insiders here in Nagpur say the Modi-Shah duo has been given a free hand to allow them to perform and carry forward the RSS agenda.
Another senior swayamsevak pointed out that it was Bhagwat who had announced the end of the Atal-Advani era in the BJP in Kolkata on June 30, 2004, after the BJP’s defeat in the general elections and underscored the need to push young blood in the party.
The “free hand” to the party and government by the RSS was visible at the three-day pratinidhi sabha in Nagpur last month, which did not pass a single resolution against the government — despite its reservations regarding some of the decisions.
When there was some discontent among the RSS-affiliated bodies like the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and Swadeshi Jagaran Manch on issues It was founded in 1964 to “organise, consolidate the Hindu society and to serve and protect the Hindu dharma”. It has been involved in the dispute over the Ram temple issue for over 40 years. Bajrang Dal is its youth wing while the Durga Vahini is its young women’s wing. It is an economics wing of RSS started in 1991. It is strongly against multi-nationals and advocates Swadeshi. like the amended land acquisition bill, labour law reforms and vigorous pushing of economic reforms, RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi intervened and arranged for a separate meeting of these leaders with senior BJP functionaries like Shah and Ram Lal. On behalf of the RSS, its joint general secretary and Modi’s trusted RSS aide Suresh Soni, was present at the meeting and served as the moderator.
Though the RSS has not been able to get the BJP to implement many issues on its agenda, it has succeeded in changing school curricula and yoga has become a government-sponsored programme. The union government has initiated an exercise to formulate a new education policy. The RSS education wing is also silently working to assist the government to formulate the new policy. A Shiksha Niti Aayog, set up under the leadership of educationist and former RSS pracharak Dinanath Batra, is holding parallel, nationwide deliberations to seek suggestions from “right-minded” citizens of the country.
It has also succeeded in getting Baldev Sharma, former editor of Panchajanya, an RSS mouthpiece, appointed as chairman of prestigious National Book Trust of India.
“The RSS never forces itself on the government or the BJP. It only makes suggestions. If a senior RSS leader puts something to the government or a BJP leader just once it should be interpreted as a suggestion. But if the same thing is repeated, it’s an order,” says Dilip Deodhar, an RSS observer who was once a senior swayamsevak.
He claimed that Bhagwat and Modi enjoy a cordial relationship which was amply clear when, in a virtual digression of protocol, Bhagwat was invited for the function to confer Bharat Ratna on the former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “The RSS is likely to ensure that if the BJP enjoys majority, Modi would be the PM till 2025 when RSS celebrates its centenary year,” he further claimed. It was founded in 1952 at Jashpur (Chhattisgarh) to counter Christian missionaries. It focuses on indigenous tribes in remote areas of the country. It has around 11,800 branches across India The farmers’ organisation opposes the BJP-led government’s proposed land acquisition bill. It was set up in 1979 under the guidance of veteran trade union leader Dattopant Thengdi. Set up in 1983 mainly to eradicate the caste system within Hindu society that had led lower caste Hindus to embrace other religions, particularly Christianity and Islam. Set up in 1980, Sewa Bharati provides service to the underprivileged by providing healthcare, food, and education.
— Pradeep Maitra