Analysis

Sangh Parivar’s Stakes in Gujarat...

It’s Make-or-Break for RSS!

The dispute within the BJP ignited by Mr. Narendra Modi is unfolding as was anticipated. It was predicted that opposition to Mr. Modi within the party would mount and it might create a dent in his support. It was predicted that the RSS would attempt to curtail Mr. Modi without relinquishing the BJP’s hold on the Gujarat government. That is why reconciliation between Mr. Modi and his detractors in the state before the assembly elections six months from now was considered to be the most desirable goal from the point of view of the RSS. The RSS leaders therefore decided to adopt a calibrated approach. Will they succeed? That will be known only by the time the assembly polls are over. If before that Mr. Modi is forced off the high horse to accommodate his opponents he will be significantly humbled. If he has his way and sweeps Gujarat despite RSS disapproval it will be a crippling blow against Nagpur.

Due to media hype and opinion polls Mr. Modi is widely perceived as a great vote-getter. But there is no evidence of his having justified this description anywhere outside Gujarat. In Gujarat his popularity has been proved. But anyone with the slightest acquaintance with practical politics will know that it is the rarest of rare cases when votes can be accumulated without the help of party cadres. Without the active support of party workers even the redoubtable Mr. Modi could face serious problems. His political future boils down therefore to how the party cadres in Gujarat behave. To assess that there is a fascinating subterranean text of the struggle in Gujarat that needs to be understood.

As the campaign through a poster war launched by Mr. Sanjay Joshi mounted in Gujarat there emerged a strange and unexpected offer for him to join another party. The offer was made by the National Congress Party (NCP) headed by Mr. Sharad Pawar. What on earth impelled the NCP to evince sudden interest in the internal politics of Gujarat? Could it be that as a Maharashtra based party the NCP has a natural sympathy for Mr. Joshi who is a Maharashtrian Brahmin from Nagpur operating among aliens in Gujarat? If that is so, the other side of the coin may be equally true. Has the pride in Gujarat being assiduously stoked by Mr. Modi so infected BJP workers that it might override even their lifelong loyalty to Nagpur-based RSS which happens to be led by Maharashtrian Brahmins? The RSS has been at pains to stress, even if the conduct of their leaders may belie the claim, their organization is against caste differentiation and parochial rivalries. The organization has always committed itself to Akhand Bharat, a great India.

If the BJP cadres in the forthcoming elections discard the RSS in order to follow Mr. Modi it will deal a fatal blow to the authority and professed ideology of the RSS. If on the other hand Mr. Modi is either significantly dented in the polls or is forced to eat humble pie and accommodate his rivals before these are held, it will destroy his image as the future national hope of the BJP. Either way, the crisis in Gujarat could become a game changer for the Sangh Parivar.   

12-Jun-2012

More by :  Dr. Rajinder Puri

Top | Analysis

Views: 3374      Comments: 7



Comment I am nearly five score. I have seen Vinod Kinariwalla being shoot. I donot want to see infighting in BJP and Congress. I am seeing now Gujarat bashing
by every one for right or wrong. Till today Shri dHI come Gujarat will be
happy. Jashwant Mehta , Jasubhai Patel , Keshubhai Patel and Chimanbhai Patel we remember. We love the present and care for the future.

Congress and bjp have come and gone. We care brighter Gujarat and even brighter India.
I have been six weeks before Shamalaji , and Samera,Vankatimba near Lusadiya, and seen running water, electricity, damar roads, cement
buildings (almost city like facilities) which did not exist before ten years. We
want steady growth We want this steady growth Modi or no Modi

Pranlal Sheth
16-Jun-2012 09:17 AM

Comment Mr. Gaur, you have totally misunderstood the article. Please re-read it.I am saying the opposite of what you are alleging. If an entire organization is allowed to be destroyed for the sake of one leader it will be disastrous for that organization!

My Word
14-Jun-2012 00:57 AM

Comment Drawback of good people is their simplicity -
EVERY Tom-jack-harry thinks that they are almighty
how for one person the whole of Organisation be sacrified,
so please rethink abt ur article


r k gaur
13-Jun-2012 22:51 PM

Comment MediaCrooks ?@mediacrooks

AntiModi posters were supplied by Congress... LOL! So much for SanjayJoshi's sudden popularity http://deshgujarat.com/2012/06/12/mysterious-anti-bjp-banners-were-supplied-by-gujarat-congress-video/

MediaCrooks ?@mediacrooks

Dear @ndtv @timesnow @ibnlive So anti-Modi posters were printed by Congress crooks.. Ppl arrested by police bailed out by Cong MLA.. Report?

seadog4227
13-Jun-2012 04:27 AM

Comment 'Ekam Sath',but Hinduism is riven with unbridgable chasms, castes, un touchability etc. Let for once a single leader be backed by all who consider themselves as Hindus and not as Castes. RSS & the Nation have alrady paid a very heavy price for opposing a practical Gujarathi Hindu, Mahathma Gandhi. Let Nagpur does not commit the same mistake by putting hurdles in the path of another Gujarathi Hindu,Modi. Vandhe Matharam!

v.haribabu
13-Jun-2012 01:20 AM

Comment With reference to your one of the recent articles -

Gujarat poll results may trigger start of decline of RSS rather than delcine of Modi !

Dinesh Kumar Bohre
12-Jun-2012 10:02 AM

Comment That RSS and its workers have brains to think strategically has never been seen in the past. So most likely it will back Sanjay Joshi. But if it cares for the future of the country then it should ask Joshi to shut up and back Modi. The economic and political situation in the country is too grave to indulge in petty infighting. The Congress party has brought the country into financial bankruptcy and political irrelevance.It must be defeated, whatever it takes. And once BJP solidly backs Modi, other parties who are sick of Congress misrule and are looking for a viable alternative will come around. Their so called 'secularism' is a fake ideology, adopted only for gaining power whether in states or at center.

Krish
12-Jun-2012 09:25 AM




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