THE three-day meeting of the RSS and its affiliated organisations from September 2 to 4 called the “Samanvya Baithak” was widely reported as a coordination meeting between the RSS and the BJP government.  The meeting was attended by all the senior ministers of the Modi government – Rajnath Singh, the home minister, Arun Jaitley, the finance minister, Sushma Swaraj, the external affairs minister, Manohar Parrikar, the defence minister and others.  The BJP president Amit Shah was present. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended on the last day.

The meeting evoked widespread comments.  One of the valid criticisms was that the BJP government is reporting to an organisation which is unaccountable to parliament and which has aims which are inimical to the Constitution of India.  However, some of the comments about the meeting seemed to imply that this was the first time such a meeting, convened by the RSS, was attended by BJP ministers. 

Some of the confusion stems from the failure to understand the organic link between the RSS and the BJP.  The BJP is a political organisation floated by the RSS. Thus, the BJP is the political wing of the RSS.  When the RSS calls a meeting of all its affiliated organisations, the BJP is one of them. It is reported that representatives of fifteen organisations sponsored by the RSS attended the meeting. Such Samanvya Baithaks and Chintan Baithaks of the RSS have been held in the past years too.  For instance, during the Vajpayee government in December 1999, a five-day Chintan Baithak was held in Nagpur which was attended by the senior BJP leaders and ministers.  In September 2013, a Samanvya Baithak was held, in which all the RSS affiliated organisations, including the BJP leadership, participated.  This underlines the fact that the BJP is an obedient tool of the RSS.

What has happened is that the integration and coordination between the RSS and the BJP government has reached a higher level.  This has become possible after the BJP acquired an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha.  The Modi government is not dependent on a coalition as was the case with the Vajpayee government.

The significance of the recent Baithak is that the agenda of the meeting was an overview of the government’s performance and direction.  Issues of economic policy, national security and education saw the ministers concerned making presentations and responding to queries.  The whole exercise illustrated how the RSS-BJP government coordination is getting institutionalised. Much more than in the case of the Vajpayee government, the RSS is now openly entering the fray and directing the government’s performance and policies. 

Both the RSS and the BJP are more open about admitting this coordination and supervision of the RSS.  Dattatreya Hosabale, the joint general secretary of the RSS, told the media that “Since swayamsevaks are today ruling the country, ministers would naturally be a part of such Baithaks”.  From the government’s side, Rajnath Singh, the home minister stated that “I want to clarify everyone that I am a RSS swayamsevak, the prime minister is a RSS swayamsevak and no one should have any problem in it.”  Thus the Modi government is a cosy club of swayamsevaks.

The Samanvya Baithak is not the first coordination meeting between the RSS and the Modi government.  This coordination began from the outset.  The RSS chief had consultations with Narendra Modi on the choice of ministers for the cabinet.  This was followed by the RSS setting up six samoohs (groups) comprising representatives of its frontal organisations to work with the respective ministries.  The six groups were for economic affairs, education, security, service, ideology and people’s welfare.  This new phase of coordination began last year itself.  For instance, in October 2014, five union ministers of the economic ministries met with representatives of the RSS affiliated organisations.  The RSS has put education and culture on its priority list for injecting the Hindutva ideology.  For this, the HRD minister, Smriti Irani, met leaders of the Sangh affiliated organisations six times. 

The implications of this RSS monitoring and coordination has been unfolding in various spheres. The process of placing RSS chosen personnel in various educational and cultural institutions has been going on. A new education policy with “Indianisation”, which actually means introduction of Hindutva values, is in the offing.  BJP state governments have permitted government employees to participate in RSS activities, thus facilitating the RSS infiltration into the bureaucracy.

The coordination has another disturbing aspect. The RSS and other extremist Hindutva outfits are at the ground level conducting a systematic offensive against all that is considered to be alien to Hindutva.  The recent killing of  Prof. Kalburgi in Dharwar shows how the virus of intolerant extremism is being spread.  Earlier in Maharashtra, Govind Pansare, the veteran CPI leader and writer, was killed in February 2015. Before that, Narendra Dabholkar was murdered in Pune.  Under the RSS-BJP dispensation, Hindu extremists who were charged for the bomb blasts in Malegaon, Ajmer Sharif, Mecca Masjid and Samjhauta train are being released on bail and their trials in court compromised.

It is the RSS directive which led the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) to withdraw from the September 2 strike, to help the Modi government proceed with the change in labour laws.  The authoritarian steps being taken in the name of “national security”, the efforts to browbeat the media and use of sedition clauses are also part of the RSS agenda. 

What is to be recognised is that the BJP government under Narendra Modi, who was himself an RSS pracharak, is working to an agenda and timetable set by the RSS. The RSS, in turn, is an authoritarian organisation with a reactionary ideology. The fight against the BJP government and its retrograde policies has, thus, to be taken up along with the fight against the RSS and its pernicious ideology and communal politics. 

(September 9, 2015)