The Rediff Special
'The caste factor is more powerful than
any political party or social organisation'
Even the RSS needs to relook at itself. Striking changes have occurred
in the political economy. But there is no unanimity in the Sangh
Parivar about addressing them. And the one-day meeting was held
in Delhi to sort out the differences between the BJP and the Swadeshi
Jagran Manch on the swadeshi question and it has not removed
the impression that the Sangh is muddled up about its economics.
Advani's differences with Dattopant Thengdi on swadeshi and the Enron
deal had the potential of breaking up the BJP government at the
Centre if it had lasted longer than those 13 days. At the moment,
there is a tie.
The RSS is also a wary referee in the face-off between the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad and the BJP on reclaiming the Kashi and Mathura
temples. Giriraj Kishore tells you that the Places of Worship
(Special Provision) Act constrains BJP from participating in the
movement, but Advani says the BJP had said no to it before
the passage of the Act. This rift, however, is not wide as over
swadeshi because the VHP is still not serious about the
movement.
But when -- and if -- it does become, the RSS would have
to square things up to the satisfaction of both the BJP and the
VHP. It is, just now, difficult to see the BJP taking another
Ayodhya-like risk with nearly 150 seats in Parliament, and the
RSS has to be aware of this.
As it is, the collapse of the Congress party has benefited the
BJP seat-wise, but it is still not regarded as a national party.
Its constituency is limited by the limited constituency of the
RSS itself. And the RSS has done little to enlarge it. Has it,
for instance, new insights about Muslims?
A small but new Muslim
middle class has come up. An entrepreneurial class has come up.
An entrepreneurial class has arisen from amongst the artisans
who see their enrichment tied to stability and this country. And
Muslim women have shown new intrepidness in gender battles with
the clergy. How alive is the RSS to these changes? It is hard
to tell.
It is as immobilised on the caste front. "While it has grown
rapidly among the educated middle class, it has failed to reach
the lower strata of society," says Yadav Rao. "The growth
of Kanshi Ram shows that up. This is because the RSS is a class
and not a mass organisation. When I went to organise shakhas
in Varanasi and Mirzapur, if the middle and upper classes came, the
lower classes would not come. As a class organisation we
had to choose educated workers, the lower classes got left out.
Soon, they were not attracted to the RSS at all, and this got
reflected in the sister organisations as well."
The Mandal factor has become as hard to overcome. The RSS looked
the other way when the BJP made Kalyan Singh, a Lodha, the UP chief
minister, to counter Mulayam Singh Yadav, and it has put up no
strenuous objections to the caste-wise distribution of tickets
in successive UP assembly elections.
In Bahraich, in the last
Lok Sabha election, both the BJP and the Samajwadi candidate (Beni
Prasad Verma, the Union telecom minister were kurmis, and the
slogan there was, 'Kurmi Kurmi, bhai-bhai'. "The caste
factor," concludes Yadav Rao, "is more powerful than
any political party or social organisation."
This is bad news for the RSS which considers its fundamental
purpose to be to unite Hindu society. Add to it the rising indiscipline
in the ranks, the dropping standards of swayamsevaks, the
growing "professionalism" of pracharaks, and the reduced
regard for the austerity and asceticism of the top leadership,
and you have an idea of the problems it faces. On the other hand
is the dramatic growth of the BJP, based less on the Sangh ideology
than on factors that have helped the Congress and the other political
parties before it.
There is then a problem in the Sangh Parivar. It may, if
things go on this way, become one if there is a Sangh Parivar
at all.
Kind courtesy: Sunday magazine
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