The recipe of trumping odds: The RSS playbook
India, Oct. 13 -- I have been watching the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) - in its 101st year now - for more than 50 years. An obvious curiosity arises about the secret of its success.
People may point out that Uttar Pradesh chief minister (CM) Yogi Adityanath and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma don't belong to the RSS fold. That is true, but it is equally true that once you are part of the BJP, you can't escape the RSS ideology.
The political arm of the RSS, the BJP, is leading the coalition that is in its third successive term at the Centre, and the Sangh's ideological roots are deepening. The RSS has achieved this despite stiff opposition from the Communists, socialists, and the Congress Party.
How did the RSS succeed? I would like to elaborate on four instances from different decades of Indian history that help explain this.
In 1969, my father admitted me to a Saraswati Shishu Mandir (an RSS-run school), when he was transferred to Allahabad (Prayagraj today). The school was run from a building owned by Rajendra Singh, who later became RSS sarsanghchalak (chief). It had a period dedicated to reading books or magazines in the library. No other school had a whole hour dedicated to studying something other than the course material. Physical training (PT) was mandatory too. The teachers and the principal regularly visited the homes of students, to talk to parents about ways to make their children more sanskari and shikshit (morally upright and educated). During the house visits, nation building, India's history of occupation, and failings of government policies were also discussed.
In 1979, I completed my graduation and started writing for newspapers and magazines. During this time, I befriended many Communists and socialists. They discussed issues such as international affairs and personalities including Che Guevara, Lenin, Mao, Trotsky, and Stalin endlessly in coffee houses or at roadside tea stalls. In those days, the Moscow-inspired People's Publishing House and other such publishers provided Russian and progressive literature at a discounted price. Maxim Gorky's Mother, printed on glossy paper, was available for just Rs.5 while Bhisham Sahni's epochal novel, Tamas, cost Rs.40. Not surprisingly, people with meagre income preferred progressive literature. RSS swayamsevaks (volunteers), on the other hand, were busy in rendering seva (service) in villages and among the Dalits and the tribal communities. They supported the poor in their struggle against floods, pestilence, and general poverty. All these efforts bore fruit within a decade.
By 1989, the RSS successfully turned the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign into a mass movement. Sangh workers went door to door to collect bricks for the proposed temple. Karsevakpuram was established in Ayodhya. Anyone who visited the site and saw the large mass of bricks amassed would return convinced that the whole country has thrown its weight behind the movement.
I was the resident editor of a newspaper in Agra at that time and could sense that the world around me was changing. One day I received a chit from the office reception. The name on it was of Gopal Godse, Nathuram Godse's brother and co-accused in Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. For the next one-and-a-half hours, I grilled him. Unperturbed, he insisted that he and his brother didn't kill Gandhi. He said that they "respected Gandhiji a lot", but his demise was in the interest of the country. His face keeps popping up in my consciousness these days: On October 2, I saw Gopal Godse trending on social media.
I vividly remember my first meeting with LK Advani in those fateful times. One bright winter day, he invited the editors of three prominent newspapers of the city for a breakfast meeting at the Agra Circuit House, to discuss the Ram Janmabhoomi issue. No one then guessed that the Babri Masjid would be demolished within the next two years. The Sangh had employed everyone, from ordinary workers to Gopal Godse and mass leaders such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Advani, to make its case for a Ram temple.
In 1999, Vajpayee became the Prime Minister and Advani his home minister. It marked the decisive victory of the RSS ideology in the electoral battlefield. Today, we are witnessing its full dominance.
If the Congress and its allies want to regain power in Delhi, they may have to borrow a leaf from the RSS playbook on employing traditions, moral conduct, and organisational genius for at least a decade. The Sangh's present unassailable position is hard-earned; can its adversaries cultivate the patience and wherewithal to challenge its supremacy?...
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