RSS leader Ratan Sharda believes JP Nadda’s statement that “BJP is now grown and powerful” should not have been made during the Lok Sabha elections. He said RSS leaders are sometimes taken for granted. Sharda recently said the results of the Lok Sabha elections came as a reality check for “overconfident” BJP activists and leaders because they were happy in their “bubble” but had not listened to the voice on the streets.
“What Nadda said is actually the same kind of thing I would have said during the elections because every Sangha-inspired organisation has to have its own cadres and dedicated people. And that is the case. But unfortunately, RSS cadres are sometimes taken for granted,” Sharda said in an interview. The RSS leader was referring to Nadda’s remarks during the interview. Nadda said that initially, the BJP was less capable, smaller and would have needed the RSS. “Today, we are grown and capable. The BJP is running itself.”
The RSS leader said he has been meeting his party’s associates in different states. “Someone in Madhya Pradesh told me (that), ‘They (BJP) don’t listen. They choose their own candidates. I am referring to the last state assembly elections. He said, ‘RSS will make us win in the end.’ This is an attitude the RSS does not like.” The remarks came even as the elections were underway.
Sharda said the RSS was trying hard to get people to vote for them. “In this election, Mohan Bhagwat said we have done our job. We have generated interest among people to vote and fulfilled our duty to vote for the nationalist forces. Beyond that, the BJP has to take control at the polling station level,” he said.
The RSS leader also denied allegations that the organisation did not support the BJP this time, saying, “When people say on social media, ‘RSS is not involved’, we need to ask them to do their job. They have their job to do.”
He also suggested that there were problems at the local level and that BJP leaders had not responded to his concerns. “When I call BJP leaders and ask about local candidates, there is no response. So how do I act? This is based on my own experience.”
Sharda said the BJP needed to re-educate its workers on the ideals of the party, the RSS from which they were born and the sacrifices made by its earlier leaders. “Modi is one of the great leaders and may be the greatest blessing the BJP has ever had, but more than that, it has to work on the streets, on the streets,” he said.
In this election, the BJP aimed to win over 370 Lok Sabha seats but ended up with just 240. RSS ideologues said there was a disconnect on the ground and that many BJP MPs lost because they could not be reached or because defectors were given tickets despite opposition from workers.
“As BJP activists say, the Congress has lost. Isco ticket na hidena“They throw defectors in our face. What are the BJP activists going to do? If they put someone who has no connection with the constituency in a constituency where people are working hard, then they (activists) will have problems.”
Asked what the BJP’s biggest blunder was in this election, Sharda pointed to the defection of 25% of its candidates. “Kripa Shankar Singh (who lost in Jaunpur constituency) who nominated RSS ki Saajish (on November 26) never regretted it. He was nominated but never apologised. RK Singh was the home minister but he called the RSS a terrorist organisation. He could have said, ‘I worked under the UPA. I had to follow the government’s instructions. I don’t believe it. I made a mistake. He never said that. He became a minister. So I am not a member of the RSS. I can speak to hundreds of members. It is a blow. The BJP and RSS members feel that defectors are given more importance.”
In an interview with The Indian Express, replying to a question about how the RSS’s presence has changed between the time of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and now, Nadda said, “Initially, we were less capable, smaller and we needed the RSS. Today, we are grown and capable. The BJP is running itself. That is the difference.”
