Updated: October 8, 2013 00:54 IST
The forgotten promise of 1949
The RSS wrote a non-political role for itself as part of an undertaking it gave Sardar Patel. The overt political role it has assumed in 2013 is a breach of that agreement and its own constitution
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s constitution explicitly states that it
will stay clear of politics. The constitution itself was written, in
1949, because Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel would have it no other way.
The events of 2013 have comprehensively erased that part of India’s
history. The RSS has taken full control of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
It has overridden internal opposition to name the party’s prime
ministerial candidate. No act can be politically more overt than this.
A mentor
The RSS has always been to the BJP, earlier the Jan Sangh, a mentor the
latter could not disobey — because the Jan Sangh was seeded by the RSS
whose top pracharaks (propagandists) formed the new party’s intellectual
and political capital. In its constitution, the RSS abjures a political
role for itself but permits individual swayamsevaks to join any
political party.
The RSS has used this caveat to place its representatives in the JS/BJP.
From Lal Krishna Advani to Narendra Modi, every BJP leader of
consequence has been from the Sangh’s deep bosom and each has had to
mandatorily follow a curriculum involving pilgrimages to the Sangh
offices in Delhi and Nagpur and deferring to the patriarch’s wisdom.
The unstated part of the BJP-RSS relationship was that the Sangh chief,
Sarsanghchalak in RSS parlance, himself would not show his hand. The
behind-the-scenes role for the minder was necessitated both by the 1949
undertaking to Patel and to overcome the strong political opposition to
Hindutva. The governments of 1977-1979 and 1998-2004 became possible
only because the RSS agreed to keep out of sight.
The events of 2013 are remarkable for the reason that the BJP’s need for
allies has not translated into the Sangh taking a backseat. Instead,
today more than ever before, the mentor is in a frontal, commanding
role.
A look at recent history will show that the Sangh’s takeover bid started
in real earnest in 2005, following Mr. Advani’s visit to Pakistan and
his apocalyptical praise of Mohammad Ali Jinnah delivered straight from
the latter’s mausoleum in Karachi. So livid was the Sangh at the
transgression that it ordered Mr. Advani removed from the presidentship
of the BJP. And though Mr. Advani did become the BJP’s prime ministerial
candidate in 2009, his unique place in the Sangh was lost forever. The
marginalisation of the ideologue started at that point and has ended
today in his complete isolation.
The epic clash of 2005, and Mr. Advani’s barely controlled anger at his
public sacking by the minder, are best captured in Mr. Advani’s own
words. Addressing the concluding session of the party’s September 2005
Chennai national executive, Mr. Advani said an “impression had gained
ground” that his party could take “no decision” without the consent of
the RSS : “This perception, we hold, will do no good either to the Party
or to the RSS. The RSS must be concerned that such a perception will
dwarf its greater mission of man making and nation-building. Both the
RSS and the BJP must consciously exert to dispel this impression.”
Lesser players had clashed with the Sangh earlier, and paid the price
too, but Mr. Advani was beloved of the Sangh, and among the early
pracharaks sent to the Jan Sangh. The BJP veteran was blunt when he
called the RSS a busybody; in truth, it had always been so. What was
unprecedented was the Sangh divesting a leader of Mr. Advani’s stature
and vintage of his presidency.
Seven years on, the Sangh has issued another decree — this time to give a
leader a double promotion executed in two stages. Narendra Modi’s June
2013 elevation to the BJP’s campaign committee chief, since relinquished
by him, was followed in September 2013 by his appointment as the
party’s prime ministerial candidate. In 2005, the RSS’s role was
inferred, with the evidence coming from Mr. Advani. In 2013, the fig
leaf has been cast away.
Mr. Advani, who had resigned from key party posts protesting Mr. Modi’s
June 2013 elevation to campaign panel chief, climbed down on the Sangh’s
orders — a fact acknowledged in writing by BJP chief Rajnath Singh.
This was a first in RSS-BJP history. Mr. Singh’s June 11, 2013 statement
to the media said, “Shri Mohan Bhagwat (current Sarsanghchalak) spoke
to Shri Advani and asked him to respect the BJP Parliamentary Board (PB)
decision and continue to guide the party in national interest.” The
BJP’s PB did indeed make a request to Mr. Advani but from Mr. Bhagwat it
was a command. The words were gentle but the message was not.
Thus, the takeover bid which started in 2005 was full and final with Mr.
Modi’s projection as Prime Minister in September 2013. In June 2013,
Mr. Advani wanted that Mr. Modi should not head the campaign panel. That
has happened today, proving that the first-stage elevation was a ploy
aimed at wearing down internal opposition to Mr. Modi.
‘No politics’
Cut to 1949 and the RSS’s undertaking to Patel to write a constitution,
which, among other things, would specify that the Sangh had “no
politics” and would remain “devoted purely to cultural work” (Article
4(b) of the RSS constitution; D.R. Goyal, 1979). The written
constitution was Patel’s pre-condition for lifting the ban imposed on
the RSS in the wake of Mahatma Gandhi’s January 30, 1948 assassination.
Then Sarsanghchalak Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar pleaded not guilty and
Patel himself was clear that the RSS was not involved in the
assassination. He said this in his February 27, 1948 letter to Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and reiterated it later too. However, Patel
was strong in the belief that the Sangh’s “violent” ways contributed to
the climate in which Gandhiji was killed. Golwalkar’s telegrams to Nehru
and Patel expressing shock at the murder did not mitigate the
situation.
The government’s ban notification, dated February 4, 1948, did not
implicate the RSS in Gandhiji’s murder; it in fact made no mention of
the murder. The charge in the text was of violent subversion: “... in
practice members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have not adhered to
their professed ideals (fostering feelings of brotherhood, love and
service among Hindus). Undesirable and even dangerous activities have
been carried on by members of the Sangh … individual members of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have indulged in acts of violence involving
arson, robbery, dacoity and murder and have collected illicit arms and
ammunition. They have been found circulating leaflets exhorting people
to resort to terrorist methods, to collect firearms, to create
disaffection against the government and suborn the police and the
military. These activities have been carried on under a cloak of secrecy
…”
On November 14, 1948, the Home Ministry held by Patel issued a press
note which said Golwalkar wanted the ban lifted without agreeing to the
government’s demand that the RSS reform itself. Further, the note quoted
information received from the provincial governments, which showed
“that the activities carried on in various forms and ways by the people
associated with the RSS tend to be anti-national and often subversive
and violent and that persistent attempts are being made by the RSS to
revive an atmosphere in the country which was productive of such
disastrous consequences in the past…”
Two letters
Prior to this, Patel wrote two significant letters. On July 18, 1948, he
wrote to Shyama Prasad Mookherjee, rejecting his defence of the RSS:
“The activities of the RSS constituted a clear threat to the existence
of the Government and State … as time has marched on, the RSS circles
are becoming more defiant and are indulging in their subversive
activities … in an increasing measure…”
The letter of September 11, 1948, was to Golwalkar himself. In this
Patel lauded the RSS for its service to Hindu society even as he
outlined the “objectionable part” which “arose when they, burning with
revenge, began attacking Mussalmaans …” Further, “As a final result of
the (communal) poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the
invaluable life of Gandhiji …” Patel said people’s opposition to the RSS
grew when “the RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after
Gandhiji’s death.”
So, the charge that led to the ban was not that the RSS was involved in
Gandhiji’s murder. The charge was of violence and subversion. (The Sangh
was later formally cleared of any connection in the murder). This is
what led to Patel’s pre-condition that the RSS write a constitution
specifying, among other things, its respect for the Indian flag (the
Sangh swears by the Bhagwa flag), its commitment both to function as an
open and peaceful organisation and to stay clear of politics. It was a
prolonged battle. Golwalkar resisted writing the constitution but Patel
won out and the ban was lifted on July 11, 1949.
The RSS has gone back on the promise to keep off politics.
Keywords: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh constitution, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, BJP party, Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar
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