The parliamentary elections of 2024 gave disappointing results for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Its strength in Lok Sabha came down from 303 to 240. Thereby the formal National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had to become the NDA government. The alliance partners who had no say during the last ten years can now possibly have their voice heard. This may reduce the dominance of the BJP’s Hindu nationalist agenda. To cap it all, the increased strength of the INDIA coalition and increasing popular support for Rahul Gandhi led to the Opposition becoming more assertive and forceful.
In these elections it seems probable that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had not come forward to aid its political progeny — the BJP. That does not mean the RSS wanted the BJP to be defeated, it was just aimed to subtly reprimand the rising ‘non-biological’ syndrome, to deflate his rising dominance. Still the RSS is in the driving seat or is the back seat driver in the real sense. Already RSS leaders are having long meetings with BJP leaders to analyse results of elections and to chart out future strategy.
In Uttar Pradesh, the RSS delegation was led by Sah Sarkaryavah (joint general secretary) Arun Kumar, who has been pioneering the coordination between the two organisations, Live Hindustan reported. RSS’s Ram Madhav has taken charge of Jammu and Kashmir elections.
At a deeper level the understanding of the RSS is that the major reason for the BJP’s decline in this election has been due to the shifting of Dalit vote towards INDIA coalition. To tackle this, the VHP is being activated, which will be having a series of meetings in Dalit bastis, co-dine with them and organise religious programmes to lure them. The VHP saints and sadhus will be undertaking this. The Hindu reports, “These religious leaders will undertake padyatra [foot march] in the designated areas, organise satsangs, Dharm Sansads [spiritual gatherings], visit homes of people hailing from the communities, and eat at their houses. This programme will be undertaken in the 9000 sub division of the VHP.”
In a way it also reminds us of the Ram Temple movement, where the VHP played the foundational role and then the BJP took over. The RSS not only trains the drivers (pracharaks, swayamsevaks) but is doing the back seat driving also. The 2024 parliament election results have shaken it and it is planning to go full steam to win back the shifting vote bank. The response of the RSS to these election results yet again shows that its claim of being a cultural organisation is a mere façade.
It is another matter that now their political strength may have to go in the reverse direction for multiple reasons. Ram Temple movement was made strong to counter Mandal. With ten years of Modi rule and major unfolding of HIndutva agenda, the realisation is reaching far and wide that this organisation which stands for ‘Manu Smirti’ and ‘Hate Muslim’ politics, cannot stand for social justice in any way.
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It has taken so long for the Opposition parties to see the reality of politics of Hindu Rashtra. It practically took ten years of dictatorial rule and partisan agenda of Modi-BJP that now the Opposition parties are taking the baby steps to counter the politics of the RSS. The RSS as such had a long journey from its blunt formulations praising Nazis, and fascists as articulated in its second Sarsangh Chalak M.S. Golwalkar’s “We or our Nationhood defined,” to opposing the tricolour, to opposing the Constitution to more subtle language at present. Also its prestige in people’s eyes had nosedived after the murder of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse.
By a quirk of fate, Jaya Prakash Narayan’s ‘Total revolution’ came to give credibility to the RSS. J P was a giant of a freedom fighter, still he could not see the true nature of the RSS, when he said ‘if RSS is fascist, I am a fascist’. Just prior to this Nehru had grasped the true nature of the RSS.
In his letter to the heads of provincial governments in December 1947, Nehru wrote that “we have a great deal of evidence to show that RSS is an organisation which is in the nature of a private army and which is definitely proceeding on the strictest Nazi lines, even following the techniques of the organization”. This understanding of his was not taken seriously by the later governments, and in addition the RSS trained pracharaks had started infiltrating in different crucial aspects of social and political life of the country.
The period of two terms of the BJP rule has totally disillusioned a large section of people and many parties. They have realised that what Nehru was saying has more than a grain of truth in it. To cap it all, most of the civil society groups who had been aloof from the electoral processes so far have woken up. These groups do see the fact that the rule of BJP-RSS has already done so much damage to our society that irrespective of the weaknesses of the INDIA coalition, a situation has to be created where the goals of INDIA coalition of democracy and pluralism have to be strengthened. Starting from the Karnataka initiative of Eddulu Karnataka and then Bharat Jodo Abhiyan; many civil society initiatives are aligning together, irrespective of their difference on other issues, to ensure that democracy survives and pluralism thrives.
This realisation is not just at the political level. The observation as to how scientific temper is being undermined and blind faith being promoted is there for all to see. The blind glorification of the past, the first plastic surgeon-ancient India, Gold in Cow urine or promoting beating of thalis to drive away corona have shattered the core of rational thinking. IIT’s; the peak of our academic attainment; are taking up projects to prove the usefulness of Panchgavya (mixture of cow dung, urine, milk, ghee and curd).
The RSS-trained pracharaks are there in media, social media and have infiltrated the very body of our national life with an understanding which glorifies retrograde values. The rot is very deep and electoral defeat of BJP is a mere first step which has to be followed by building a social common sense rooted in the values of our freedom movement. Be it the history or science or legal system, a rot brought in by communal ideology has to be combated against.
Ram Puniyani is president of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.
