Bharat Bhushan - Ayodhya: RSS on the back-foot // Hemantkumar Shah: From ‘loved child of RSS’ to fierce Modi critic
Bharat Bhushan: Ram temple at Ayodhya: Hindutva organisations on the back-foot
Hemantkumar Shah: From ‘loved child of RSS’ to fierce Modi critic
Having raised the
controversial Ram Temple issue to fever-pitch, suddenly the temple
agitation has been ‘postponed’ till after the elections by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its mother
organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Ostensibly the VHP
does not want the Ram
Temple to become a ‘petty election issue’. This seems to defy
logic because the Ram
Temple issue has always been raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) in election season in the hope that by polarising the electorate, it will
encourage the majority community to line up behind the party.
This time also, Prime
Minister Modi and BJP president Amit Shah have made public statements on
temple construction barely months before the general election is due. Shah went
to the extent of promising that construction would begin at Ayodhya before
the general election. The government’s
efforts to get a Supreme
Court judgment on the disputed site in Ayodhya before
September 2018 came to naught. It also considered bringing in an ordinance to
enable temple construction. Finally it has chosen to file a petition in
the Supreme Court seeking permission to return to
the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas land adjoining the disputed site
that had been acquired by the governmnet under court orders. If successful, it
would enable the Nyas to begin temple construction on the undisputed land
surrounding the disputed portion and provide the BJP with
a face-saver.
Meanwhile, a social
media campaign was unleashed by the party to build sentiment in favour of
temple construction. The VHP fell in line and organised dharma sabhas
(religious meetings) across the country culminating in a ‘Dharma Sansad’
(self-styled Religious Parliament) on the occasion of the Ardh-Kumbh demanding
temple construction. Then why, virtually on
the eve of the general election, have the Modi-Shah duo and social media
activists employed by the BJP fallen
silent?
The turning point
perhaps was RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s speech at the Dharma Sansad.
He was repeatedly interrupted by sadhus demanding he announce a specific date
for beginning temple construction, and he was at a loss to do so. The
consequences of not delivering on promises of temple construction before the
elections must have struck the RSS chief
sharply. If the BJP lost the coming election it would signal a loss of
credibility and legitimacy within their Hindu constituency both for the party
and the RSS.
Having read the
tea-leaves, the RSS may also want to prepare for a post-poll scenario where the
BJP, may fail to secure full majority. Prime Minister Modi himself has let slip
as much in his speech to Parliament, where he seemed to suggest that the
general election would result in an alliance government of the Opposition,
which he contemptuously described as a “maha-milawat” or a mixture of contaminants. The RSS leadership may
be somewhat disenchanted by the Modi-Shah duo but prospects of the BJP losing
power are frightening for the organisation. It needs to protect not only the
vast resources it has accumulated under the Modi regime but also the political
and social reach it has gained by penetration and control of state
institutions, universities, think-tanks, media, research funding bodies, etc.
With Rahul Gandhi promising to purge all institutions of RSS sympathisers and
supporters if the Opposition comes to power, the future is threatened for the
RSS just when it is getting used to controlling the levers of institutional
power.
The RSS understands
that cobbling together a BJP-led coalition has to be its first priority even if
that requires putting the temple agenda on the backburner. Political pundits are
in fact suggesting that the RSS is looking out for a more ‘moderate’ face who
could perhaps lead such a coalition. Prime Minister Modi does not have a
reconciliatory persona. He is seen as being authoritarian and a bully. There
have been suggestions that Nitin Gadkari may be the man of the moment for the
RSS. Many claim that
Gadkari’s political double-entendres against the political style of Modi and
Shah are made with a wink and nod from the RSS. There are other possibilities
too for the new national face of the BJP. A popular leader like Shivraj Singh
Chouhan, who is being persuaded to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Guna in
Madhya Pradesh, could as well fill the shoes of the BJP prime ministerial
candidate should a the need for a coalition arise.
In an uncertain
political environment the best case scenario for the RSS would be to have a
moderate BJP leader at the head of a National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
government – someone who could not only hold the present allies together but
also expand their number after the polls. Raising the Ram Temple tempo before
the elections would reduce negotiating room with future allies. The BJP is already
facing erosion in the NDA ranks. The Telugu Desam Party, the Rashtriya Lok
Samata Party and the Asom Gana Parishad have left the alliance and others in
the north-east are straining at the leash over the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
Even the BJP’s oldest ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has one foot out of the
NDA door.
At a time like this, the BJP cannot afford to show a red rag to its
allies by forcing a confrontation over the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Already, NDA
partners like the Janata Dal (United) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) have
publicly distanced themselves from the demand for temple-construction.
Post-poll allies
potentially include the Telangana Rajya Samithi, YSR Congress and the Biju
Janata Dal. If the BJP tires to polarise the voters for its immediate benefit
by forcibly breaking ground in Ayodhya to construct a temple, these parties may
not join a BJP-led government after the elections.
So for the time being
the BJP and the RSS will have to keep the Ram Temple confined to the courts.
Hemantkumar Shah: From ‘loved child of RSS’ to fierce Modi critic
Hemantkumar Shah, 60,
who resigned
as in-charge principal of HK Arts College in Ahmedabad after the
college management declined permission to use its auditorium for a function
where independent MLA Jignesh
Mevani was invited as chief guest, was the national executive committee
member of RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) till a decade ago.
Shah holds a
postgraduate degree in political science and was associated with Jai Prakash
Narayan’s Chhatralaya Sangharsh Vahini as a student. He has also worked as a
journalist. He says he stopped
attending SJM’s meetings from 2008. “I was a core group member and a loved
child of RSS since I was against liberalisation, globalisation and
privatisation,” Shah recalls. Elaborating on what
prompted him to change his stand, he said, “The RSS body was biased and would
only criticise UPA Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
his policies but not speak a word against Vasundhara
Raje
Scindia, Narendra Modi and Shivraj
Singh Chouhan. My thinking turned problematic for these people when I
started vehemently voicing against Narendra Modi’s dictatorship in 2002-03,” he
says.
Shah recalled that in
2001, he wrote an article in a vernacular newspaper criticising the then
Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government’s Samras Yojana for panchayats. “The morning the
article was published, I received a call from the editor, asking me not to write
anti-Modi articles for the time-being,” he says. His close friends say
that the 2002 Gujarat riots proved to be “turning point” for the academic.
“Being a pure Gandhian, he was hurt by the way the 2002 riots were dealt with,”
says an associate of Shah... read more:
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/from-loved-child-of-rss-to-fierce-modi-critic-hemantkumar-shah-gujarat-college-mevani-event-5581062/