Columns: Race Course Road

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India Today, January 18, 1999
Jan 18, 1999

RACE COURSE ROAD
Patriarch's Prerogative

Vajpayee is firm on silencing his foes within the Sangh.

By Prabhu Chawla

Like most politicians, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is quite adept at fighting his known adversaries. Problems, however, arise when the enemy is within: the rebellious Sangh Parivar, for one. If last year saw Vajpayee being constantly betrayed by his allies and the babus, in 1999 he will have to grapple with a highly surcharged RSS and some of its semi-literate leaders. If their sporadic and venomous outbursts against Vajpayee and his Government are any indication, the stage is set for a showdown between the prime minister and a section of the RSS leadership.

The challenge Vajpayee faces from the deadly troika comprising K. Sudarshan, RSS deputy general secretary, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's Ashok Singhal and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh's Dattopant Thengadi is formidable. All of them command a massive following in their own outfits and have been contemporaries in the parent organisation though it is a known fact that they rarely get along with each other. But what now binds them together is their pathological hatred for the prime minister and his style of governance. Recent actions prove that the troika has virtually declared war on the Government. If Sudarshan has begun patronising the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Singhal has opened a new front by targeting the Church. Thengadi is mobilising the labour class against the Vajpayee Government's policy vis-a-vis public-sector undertakings. That even the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the RSS, has been roped in is evident from the scathing attack on the prime minister during its recent golden jubilee convention.

The three have decided to mobilise public opinion through agitations, public meetings and seminars at the state level. Surprisingly, the targets of their ire are no longer their traditional foes like the Congress or the left parties. In fact in some of the states they have joined hands with the Congress ranks in attacking the Government. They are so upset with the Central Government that an RSS leader told a senior cabinet minister recently that the RSS would not mind the collapse of this Government, which he termed as "anti-Hindu and pro-videshi". He was also candid enough to admit that Vajpayee had come to occupy the top post not because of the RSS but in spite of it. The RSS therefore would not regret his ouster, he said bluntly.

What has baffled Vajpayee is the timing of the Sangh Parivar's fresh offensive against the Government and its belligerence towards the minorities. Between 1991 and 1996, when the nation went through a phase of economic liberalisation and foreign goods began to flood the Indian market, none of the RSS organisations protested, leave alone launch agitations. Even the VHP was devoting its energy to mobilising public opinion in favour of the Ram temple at Ayodhya and left the Christians to live in peace. The mood is different now.

In order to protect his Government and restore confidence in his capacity to deliver, Vajpayee is now left with no option but to take on the RSS and its frontal organisations. He has roped in Home Minister L.K. Advani to prevail upon the RSS to fall in line. If that effort fails, he is determined to take action. The Sangh Parivar is clearly headed for an internecine war. Nothing would make the lady at 10 Janpath happier.

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