How Should One Read Modi’s Birthday Note to Mohan Bhagwat?

How should one read prime minister Narendra Modi’s tribute to RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat’s 75th birthday? For those who have a sense of the ongoing power tussle between the two, the birthday note can easily be read both as a heartfelt outreach and as a power move.

Modi asserted that Bhagwat was turning 75 in the same year that the RSS marks its centenary, and went on to detail his achievements through his tenure in the Sangh parivar. His op-ed could very well have been a speech made at a retirement function.

Not long ago, at a book event in July 2025, Bhagwat had himself remarked after being felicitated with a shawl, “...you gave this shawl to me at the age of 75, but I know its meaning. When a shawl is draped at the age of 75, it means that you have grown old, just move aside, let us do it.” His comment was interpreted by many as a veiled attack on the prime minister who, too, would be turning 75 on September 17, 2025.

With their birthdays only a few days apart, the prime minister revelled in his first mover advantage to write a detailed note on Bhagwat. Modi reminded everyone that he had worked closely with Bhagwat’s father Madhukar Rao Bhagwat and has “written extensively about him in my book, Jyotipunj”.

He applauded Bhagwat for taking on the organisational responsibility of a Sarsanghchalak though “personal sacrifice”, for imbibing in his working style both “continuity and adaptation”, at a time when the RSS chief in multiple platforms has been asserting the need for restraint in public life and urging leaders to give up their opulence and arrogance – both aspects of continuity of RSS’s tradition than adaptation.

The prime minister’s praise for the chief of the “oldest NGO” – that’s how he described the RSS in his last independence day speech – had all the elements of an underlying power dynamic that sought to establish Modi’s superiority over and above everyone in the Sangh Parivar. Could it be more evident that the Prime Minister ended his birthday note by indicating his preference for a Sarsanghchalak who could “rise above boundaries”.

“I will conclude by saying that Mohan ji is a living example of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, showing that when we rise above boundaries and consider everyone as our own, it strengthens trust, brotherhood and equality in society,” Modi concluded.

The friction or fissure between the two power centres of the Sangh parivar had been unfolding in direct and indirect ways ever since Modi emerged as the most popular leader in the country over the last decade. But BJP president J.P. Nadda’s statement that the BJP didn’t need the RSS like it used to earlier to win elections marked a significant turning point between the two organisations. During the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Bhagwat was seen as one among many guests in the event that foregrounded Modi as the sole spokesperson.

As it turned out, the RSS’s lack of enthusiasm in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections cost the BJP two of its biggest strongholds – Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Soon after the BJP was reduced to a minority in the Lok Sabha, Bhagwat was among the first self-critical voices in the Sangh parivar to say that a true sevak does not have arrogance. Later, he gave his nod for an article in the RSS mouthpiece Organiser which argued that fighting all the 543 seats on Modi’s name was “self-defeating”.

The author of the piece, Ratan Sharda, further wrote, “Targets are achieved by hard work on the field, not sharing posters and selfies on social media. Since they [BJP leaders] were happy in their bubble, enjoying the glow reflected from Modiji’s aura, they were not listening to voices on the streets.”

It was only in his third term as the PM that Modi visited Nagpur, a trip that marked his first open outreach to Bhagwat after he came to power. Since then, the PM has applauded the RSS in his independence day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, played an important role in the RSS’s centenary celebrations across the country, and has now written an op-ed marking Bhagwat’s birthday.

But Bhagwat, it seems, remains adamant. Modi has sent out feelers to the RSS chief at a time when the latter has clearly indicated that Modi’s successor and also the next BJP president should be one that upholds the RSS’s long-held values – someone who characterises simple living and restraint, as opposed to BJP’s transformation from a voluble party with democratic credentials to a one-man cult. The Modi-Shah duo, on the other hand, would like to have a pliant president and a loyalist at his core.

At the core of the friction is the growing disenchantment within the RSS’s ranks against a suffocating centralisation of power in the BJP. Sources in the RSS say that the centralising impulses of the Modi-Shah duo may have reaped electoral profits but have alienated a large chunk of party’s support on the ground.

For instance, they repeatedly lash out at the choice of BJP chief ministers like Mohan Yadav or Bhajan Lal Sharma who command little weight in the RSS ranks. Similarly, the induction of outsiders like Himanta Biswa Sharma or Jyotiraditya Scindia is being vocally resisted in the Sangh parivar.

“Those who have built the BJP from scratch are not being listened to. The chief ministers have shut their doors on us. All they do is to take direct orders from the Centre, and have no role in making independent decisions,” a senior RSS worker based in Rajasthan told me recently.

In late August, Bhagwat had an interesting response to a question from the media about strains in the relationship between the RSS and BJP. Although he intended to dismiss such a speculation, he stopped short of it by saying that there could be “matbhed” (difference of opinion) but no manbhed (quarrel) with the BJP. A few days later, he took a dig at the BJP by claiming that had the RSS been allowed to choose the next BJP president, it wouldn’t have taken so much time.

In spite of the Prime Minister making multiple attempts to bring Bhagwat on board, he has been only partially successful. The RSS has come around after abstaining from canvassing for the BJP in different assembly polls after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, but now also wants to secure its traditional say in BJP’s decision-making.

By mooting the name of Sanjay Joshi, Modi’s old rival in the parivar, to be included among BJP’s top office-bearers, Bhagwat has hammered home his point. However, Modi’s own track record of speaking with a forked tongue signals that even his praise for Bhagwat could very well contain mixed messages. That could surely mark a new phase of animosity between the two.

This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.

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