Next year marks the RSS’s 100th anniversary and it is an organisation playing the long game. To that end, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been a major promoter of their ideological agenda. But with the collapse of the BJP in India’s two most populous states, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, there is a realisation that the party, the political wing of the RSS, is at the head of a coalition government but managed to stay in power thanks to a surprise win of 20 seats from Odisha.
In such a scenario, the recent remarks of RSS leader Mohan Bhagwat cannot be dismissed as empty moral posturing or an attempt to quickly gain opposition status. It must be interpreted as a clear message to Prime Minister Modi. And it may well mark the beginning of a shift in the balance of power within the BJP and its relationship with the RSS. The RSS leader, among others, has expressed his sincere support for the BJP. Sevak No arrogance. Given that the 2024 election campaign has been reduced to a message of “Modi assurances” and a once-loud party with multiple centres of power has now become a one-man cult, the use of the word “arrogant” was a clear signal from the Sangh Parivar head.
This was also emphasized in a bylined article in the RSS magazine. Organizer The article was written by Ratan Sharda, who has written several books on the Sangha. Sharda criticised the move to contest all 543 seats in Modi’s name as “self-defeating”. The article also said, “The goal will be achieved through on-the-ground efforts, not through sharing posters and selfies on social media. [BJP leaders] They were happy in their own world, enjoying the glow of Modiji’s aura reflecting off them, and were not listening to the voices on the streets.”
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Thus, the very serious challenge to Modi comes from within the Sangh Parivar. First, it is no coincidence that the higher-ups did not follow the procedure of convening a meeting of the BJP parliamentary party consisting of newly elected legislators to elect a leader in the House of Representatives. There was a meeting of NDA legislators, but crucially, there was no meeting of BJP legislators. The reason is that the RSS had positioned some of its legislators to question issues of election conduct and accountability rather than directly challenging Modi. This kind of conversation would have been par for the course during the time of BJP’s first prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but Modi would have none of it and the meeting never took place.
Then there are two leaders in whom the RSS has absolute confidence: Nagpur MP Nitin Gadkari, who is the Union transport minister, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, who is now agriculture minister. Neither is on the Cabinet committee on security, and the composition of that committee will remain the same. Prime Minister Modi has signaled to both allies and ideological family that he intends to do things his way.
Still, it is useful to share an anecdote from a time when both Chouhan and Modi were seen as successful chief ministers. Both also happened to be OBCs, a deliberate template for the RSS in the post-Mandal Mandir era. At a BJP meeting held to assess the state’s performance, Modi’s praise for the Gujarat model was countered by leaders who said that while Gujarat had always been a rich state, the Chouhan model was more noteworthy because Madhya Pradesh had performed well even after it was bifurcated and its resource-rich parts lost to Chhattisgarh. One veteran recalls that even then, “Modi, who was already a cult hero, didn’t like it.” The anecdote applies to today’s equation as well, since Chouhan is a counterpoint to Modi’s persona of narcissism/authoritarianism combined with closeness to big capital. The RSS has also been silent as it has benefited from the Modi phenomenon, but it is modest (but not arrogant, as RSS leaders say) and has genuine goodwill and admiration for Chouhan, who it sees as doing a good job in agriculture.
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Another figure on which speculation is rife is Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath. The RSS does not hold him responsible for the ticket distribution in the state, especially as it has become clear that he has limited influence and that Modi and Amit Shah wield a much larger one. The Delhi duo were clearly caught up in the delusion that the “Modi magic” repeated by their loyal media acolytes would overcome the discontent within the organisation and the public rift. In the words of a veteran, the “deluded commander in chief” was “a bit of a stumbling block.”400 pairs“This narrative was clearly harmful as it reinforced the idea of constitutional reform and has hit the party in Uttar Pradesh. There is also strong criticism within the party that the handpicked social media team has been so fixated on petty day-to-day trolling that they have completely missed this point.”
The more serious view emerging from the RSS is that the Modi government has created confusion on the issue of caste census. The Sangh vehemently opposes this. The Prime Minister has promised quotas in some places but not others. Today, the RSS believes that this mixed messaging has squandered the potential gains from a strong social coalition in Uttar Pradesh. Once the caste genie is out of the bottle, it is not easy to expect the Hindutva issue to hold it together in the political and social spheres of the state.
No more Mandir issues?
Also related to this is the fact that the RSS did not launch any mass agitations for the mosque temple demand in Mathura and Kashi. It has been speculated that this was because RSS leaders suggested that the temple issue would not go well there in the next few years. According to well-placed sources, the entire mobilisation in Kashi and Mathura was carried out by lawyers. Sadhu and Sanz, and locals who received sporadic support from the BJP. The RSS did not think a mass movement was “appropriate or successful” on either issue. Excessive use of the Ram card also proved unsuccessful, as the 2024 elections showed.
Adityanath has not been held directly responsible for the Uttar Pradesh fiasco, but his Thakur caste will be a hindrance in future if the RSS/BJP feels the need to present an OBC or Dalit face. Many BJP veterans argue that the perception that Adityanath is good at handling law and order will stand up in the state assembly elections, but the next elections in the state are due in 2027, so it is unclear whether the individual or the government will survive till then. The NDA coalition performed well in Bihar, but Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was the lead author of the caste study, making the Sangha very uneasy. The organisation is essentially a Brahmin organisation that uses social engineering to maintain the traditional caste structure.
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The RSS’s anger towards Modi has also spilled over into Maharashtra, as it was the high command in Delhi that instructed them to annihilate other parties and adopt a policy of extortion. This strategy has clearly damaged the BJP’s Maharashtra unit and sapped morale. With state elections due in a few months, it will be interesting to see how the BJP chooses its leadership and candidates going forward, as well as the relationship between the BJP and the opposition.
It is true that the RSS is the BJP and the BJP is often the RSS, but what the RSS firmly believes is that Modi is not the BJP and that the party and faction is bigger than the PM who turns out to be entirely biological.
Saba Naqvi is a Delhi-based journalist and author of four books writing on issues of politics and identity.
