Power Tussle in BJP: RSS on the Rampage
The message from the BJP's Chennai national executive is simple: the inner-party tussle between hardcore government supporters and organisational loyalists is not over. It took more than two weeks to finalise the text of the "Chennai Declaration". And yet, confusion still reigns over the relationship between the party's agenda and the NDA's.
This means the governmentalists, with all their clout, do not yet prevail over the organisationalists.
The original "Declaration" read: "Each and every activist ... must fully understand that the BJP has no agenda other than the common agenda of the NDA". But this was amended to express "confidence that every BJP worker understands that our agenda for governance is the national agenda for good governance"- clearly a retreat.
However, the original formulation mysteriously resurfaced in the document released to the media on January 13!
This indicates an uneasy stalemate and tension within the sangh parivar. This is underscored by the RSS's strong criticism of the government's "capitulation" to the IC-814 hijackers-publicly echoed twice by Mr L.K. Advani -, sarasanghachalak Rajendra Singh's refusal to endorse the NDA's performance, and his vituperation on "Hindu cowardice" - repeating a Muslim-communal stereotype.
The RSS's assertion at its January 7-9 "sankalpa shibir" that the Ram temple is very much on the parivar's agenda was to tell Mr Vajpayee who is the boss, as was its emphasis on the Jana Sangh-BJP link.
This column argues that the RSS is aggressively exploiting the BJP's internal stalemate, and Mr Vajpayee will find it difficult to counter it.
The RSS stamp is starkly visible in the two states where the BJP rules, viz. Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. U.P. has just rammed through the Regulation of Public Religious Buildings and Places Bill, which prohibits construction of churches, mosques and temples without prior government sanction. The legislation, it was claimed, is necessary to check "ISI activists" - a euphemism condemning the minorities.
The Bill violates the freedom of religion guaranteed by Article 25 of the Constitution. This is a fundamental right, which cannot be abridged being part of the Constitution's Basic Structure.
Every citizen has the right to enjoy and practise religious freedom through, among other things, building places of worship and praying there. So long as their use does not violate the peace or municipal byelaws, no restriction can be placed on them. There is certainly no question of prior state authorisation for their construction.
In practice, the U.P. government will condone illegal temples - as it regularly does-but ban mosques, madrassas, and churches. This is majoritarianism, not democracy with its universal rights for everyone.
The proposed law would turn our minorities into second-class citizens, who must live in constant fear of being dubbed "ISI agents" or surrender all rights to a whimsical state. That is a despicably communal thing to do.
In Gujarat, India's most communalised state, it is the RSS that rules. There is systematic anti-minority violence. Today's targets are Muslims and non-tribal Christians, besides Christian adivasis in South Gujarat. The permission granted to the Hindu Jagran Manch to build a temple next to a church at Halmodi in Surat exemplifies the state's communalisation.
The Gujarat BJP's agenda is not confined to terrorising the minorities. It is infusing communal poison into education, culture and the media-witness the wholesale appointment of pro-RSS vice-chancellors, harassment of non-BJP journalists - and to co-opting the upper crusts of different classes, including OBCs.
There is very little political resistance to this. As my recent visit to Gujarat showed, it is not easy for the minorities or non-BJP supporters to live there with dignity.
The BJP in Gujarat has now surpassed itself by lifting a 14-year-old ban on government employees joining the RSS. Now, all state employees, including policemen, can get communally indoctrinated with official complicity, and then discharge their duties - impartially of course!
The ban was imposed on 14 organisations in the wake of serious communal disturbances. Removing it only in respect of the RSS sends out a horrifying signal. The timing coincides with the "sankalpa shibir" attended by 30,000 swayamsewaks, including chief minister Keshubhai Patel.
The RSS demands that the ban be lifted all over India. It argues this is a "colonial" legacy, like banning the Congress during the Raj. This is nonsense. The RSS does not remotely resemble the pre-1947 Congress. In 1948, after Gandhi's assassination, it was banned by none other than Vallabhbhai Patel.
The ground cited by Patel remains valid even today: unique danger from the secret, cabal-like, group which aims "to suborn" all agencies of the state in pursuit of communalism.
This is what the RSS is trying to do in the police, military, education, science, and now arts and culture. The RSS is profoundly undemocratic. It has never held an election. All its appointments are top-down. It demands absolute, total, loyalty from its members. It is an exclusive all-male organisation dedicated to communalising Indian society.
The RSS is accountable to no democratic institution or process. It dominates each member of the sangh combine. This domination is ideological and organisational, functional and structural.
The RSS dodges accountability by saying it is only a "cultural" organisation. But "cultural" organisations do not prescribe political agenda, economic policies, "social engineering", or swadeshi brands.
The RSS ideology is incompatible with the Constitution and with democracy. Its membership clashes violently with the responsibilities of a civil servant, viz. acting impartially to uphold Constitutional values.
Government employees should not be allowed to join the RSS. Doing so is tantamount to liquidating the objectivity, impartiality and legitimacy of the state. And yet, Mr Vajpayee has brought matters to such a pass that he can no longer restrain the sangh.
It would be a surprise if the RSS does not start asserting itself on Kashmir and economic policy too.
So much for Hindutva's " liberal" face!
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