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To new chief Sudarshan ideology comes before politics and he will not shy away from training his swadeshi guns on Vajpayee's Government

By Swapan Dasgupta and Farzand Ahmed

At the best of times, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is unflappable. On the return flight from Mauritius last week, however, he had to exercise all his accumulated resilience to remain composed. At the traditional in-flight press conference, Vajpayee was, quite predictably, asked for his reaction to newly appointed RSS chief, 69 year-old Kuppahalli Sitaramayya Sudarshan's indictment of his economic policy. Was this, he was asked, the first sign of a fresh RSS-Government face-off?

"Don't worry, our relationship will be good," retorted Vajpayee. Then came the punch line, delivered haltingly, with measured precision. "Whatever we do will be done keeping national interests paramount and without succumbing to any pressure."

Actually, it was Vajpayee's turn to worry. Ever since it was whispered in RSS circles that the ailing Rajendra Singh (Rajju Bhaiyya) had his heart set on retiring from the top job, BJP circles were deeply anxious. Part of the concern stemmed from lament. With Rajju Bhaiyya at the helm, Vajpayee had a direct line of communication with the highest authority in the RSS. Regardless of temporary hiccups on the ground, he knew that Rajju Bhaiyya would never allow the hotheads to transgress a Lakshman rekha. He couldn't be sure that would also be the case with Sudarshan.

The concern was over style. In his seven years at the helm, Rajju Bhaiyya confined his public utterances to the larger issues of Hindu nationalism. He was the moral authority of the entire Sangh Parivar, not its engine driver. Sudarshan, on the other hand, perceives himself in a more proactive mould. Although insisting that the RSS is merely a "sorting house" of ideas that could be passed on to the Government, Sudarshan likes to play both philosopher and field marshal. So much so that some younger BJP leaders refer to him impishly as "Clinton".

It's not merely that Sudarshan insists on pressing his own candidates for political posts. In the recent Rajya Sabha elections, his intervention secured the exclusion of former minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi from Uttar Pradesh and his replacement by journalist Balbir Punj. He also seems completely impervious to the possible ramifications of his utterances on a coalition government in which the BJP is a part. Last week, for example, he demanded the scrapping of the Indian Constitution. He followed it up by speaking menacingly of an "epic war" between Hindus and anti-Hindus.

For Sudarshan, politics is a black-and-white game and part of the unending quest for ideological supremacy. The RSS may have been started by K.B. Hedgewar in 1925 to "pour some cement into the spine of Hindus" -- as a BJP minister described it quaintly -- and create a moral leadership for national regeneration. To Sudarshan, however, Hindutva is a holistic approach with definite views on everything from politics to economics. "Let there be an endeavour to bring forth a Hindu way of development. We will soon present a complete and final blueprint of an alternative concept of development." From being a way of life or, at best, a code of conduct (dharma), Sudarshan wants to turn Hinduism into an ideology -- complete with sub-branches of Hindu economics and Hindu science.

For the Government, this is a potentially nightmarish development. Already under attack from the Opposition and some alliance partners for its RSS links, Vajpayee doesn't want to be in a situation where the RSS is either setting the agenda or is at loggerheads with the ruling coalition. More than communalism -- essentially a problem linked directly to the Babri Masjid conflict -- the emerging faultlines are over economic policy.

Sudarshan's main complaint is that the Government is hurtling at break-neck speed towards globalisation and being unmindful of swadeshi interests. Influenced by the mass of anti-WTO literature generated by the protestors in Seattle last year, he echoes the charge that globalisation is for the benefit of a handful of transnational corporations. He sees the disinvestment of the loss-making Modern Foods to HLL as a part of this distortion. As a remedial measure, he has suggested that the Government change its key officials and appoint advisers with a Gandhian orientation. He even put forward the name of Bharat Jhunjhunwala, a newspaper columnist, as a possible alternative. Reacting to the suggestion, a senior BJP minister asked, "Who is he?" The RSS, he added, "has traditionally never discussed economics. It shouldn't start now." There is a belief in BJP circles that Sudarshan has become an unwitting victim of corporate lobbies, draped in swadeshi clothes.

Indeed, one of the main criticisms against Sudarshan is that he is very impressionable. "He hears what he wants to hear," said a senior BJP leader. Compounding this selective understanding is the fact that the new RSS chief keeps himself wonderfully insulated from external influences. TV, for example, is yet to make its appearance in most RSS chummeries that Sudarshan frequents. During the furore over the murder of missionary Graham Staines and his sons in Orissa early last year, an RSS activist pointed to the damaging coverage of the event by CNN and BBC. "Why are you worried?" Sudarshan is said to have told him, "Panchjanya has published the real story."

But if BJP politicians view Sudarshanomics with some disdain, verging on utter contempt, the RSS chief has his quota of admirers. The Swadeshi Jagran Manch and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), for example, see him as a powerful patron. Unlike Rajju Bhaiyya who was averse to embarrassing the Vajpayee Government, Sudarshan suffers from no such inhibitions. Says Mohanrao Bhagwat, a veterinary doctor who has been chosen as the new general secretary: "The Sangh is not concerned with day-to-day politics or electoral politics. At the same time, we cannot be unconcerned when something affects the nation or society, even if it is about politics." Adding to the twist was the assumption behind the Pratinidhi Sabha's (General Council) decisions: "This is not a BJP government; the BJP is merely in the government".

Ominously for the Vajpayee Government, this new sense of detachment could become the justification for a new adventurism. Said an RSS pracharak, now on "deputation" to the BJP: "If a branch collapses because a crow sat on it, don't blame the crow. The branch may have been lifeless to begin with."

But all may not be lost. Realising Sudarshan's state of non-relationship with the Government, RSS elders have settled for newly appointed Joint General Secretary Madandas Devi to coordinate business between the BJP and the Sangh. A chartered accountant who has travelled extensively in North America, 55-year-old Madandas is considered a modernist. Enjoying a good rapport with the younger set in the BJP, particularly those who entered the party via the student wing ABVP, Madandas could emerge as a foil to Sudarshan's rigidity. Despite nominally swearing by the motto "ek chalak anuvartita (follow one leader)" the RSS traditionally confers a great deal of functional autonomy to its fraternal bodies and front organisations. Madandas could use the space to forge a supportive relationship between the RSS and the NDA Government. Says BJP General Secretary M. Venkaiah Naidu: "The RSS is a vast reservoir of able persons. Sudarshanji's elevation merely signals continuity."

This could well be wishful thinking but Sudarshan may have to settle for the RSS collegiate's definition of its priorities. Topping the list is not the Vajpayee Government's ideological heresies but shakha work. In the past decade, the RSS has grown exponentially, from 25,000 to 40,000 shakhas. Yet, numbers don't often tell the whole story. In the big cities, RSS insiders admit there has been a sharp drop in shakha attendance. The ritual of morning drills in white shirt and khaki shorts, occasionally interspersed with a boudhik from a visiting pracharak doesn't really appeal to the new generation. Even Sudarshan has admitted that the appeal of shakhas has "depleted". Therefore, while the BJP has an attraction, as do front organisations like the ABVP, the RSS fears its core values aren't being transmitted to the next generation. As RSS chief, Sudarshan's priority is to strengthen the shakhas, if necessary through innovative schemes like inter-shakha cricket tournaments. Says Organiser Editor Seshadri Chari: "The Sangh has decided to redouble and expand its activities, increase the number of shakhas and fulltimers."

Such an ambitious programme could be better served by having a friendly government in Delhi. The RSS may be unhappy with some policies of the nda Government but it is unlikely to do anything to actively destabilise it. The recent thrust seems to be on wooing the BJP's allies to its swadeshi point of view. "There is no question of confrontation between the Government and the RSS," says BJP General Secretary K.N. Govindacharya, a trusted RSS pracharak.

The strong opposition to PSU disinvestment by parties like the Trinamool Congress and DMK is being interpreted as an encouraging sign by the RSS. Next week, BJP Rajya Sabha member Mahesh Chandra Sharma's Research and Development Foundation for Integral Humanism will host a seminar on "The Contribution of JP, Lohia and Deendayal Upadhyaya to Politics" where former prime minister Chandra Shekhar and Union Defence Minister George Fernandes will share a platform with BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi and RSS veteran Nanaji Deshmukh.

In a sense, the RSS is caught in a peculiar dilemma. The BJP has evolved from being an extension counter of Nagpur to an organisation whose appeal is far greater than the parent body. It can, theoretically, afford to cock a snook at Sudarshan as long as Vajpayee and L.K. Advani are at the helm. After the Chennai Declaration, the BJP, in fact, has taken steps to look for an identity beyond the RSS, despite the awareness that during elections it is the Sangh network that gives it organisational muscle. As things stand, both need each other, even if the relationship is mutually exploitative.

But if Sudarshan decides that ideology is supreme and Hindutva the millennium theme, he could alter the terms of engagement. That would spell big trouble for the Vajpayee Government.

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