NITA Is The New TINA

On its official website, liberally done up in its favourite colour, saffron, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) says, ‘Devotion is not business. It is sheer self-surrender.’ There must be some merit in what the RSS propagates in the virtual world—considering that this election season, self-surrender is what the Sangh outfit is practising.

The Sangh has indeed surrendered. And all this, out of devotion to its own pracharak, Narendra Damodardas Modi. For the first time in its 89-year history, the self-declared ‘non-political nationalist organisation’ has given in to aggressively participating in ele­ctoral politics. After all, the 2014 elections is no ordinary affair. For the Sangh, 2014 is the extraordinary battle of an old, ordinary pracharak and swayamsevak, Modi, fighting against all odds to occupy the top post in the country. In that sense, the battle for power is not Modi’s alone. The pracharak’s battle is also the RSS’s battle. The gamble is not just on Modi’s charm but also the Sangh’s own reputation and pride.

The hectic strategising for the election campaign of its political outfit, the BJP, began in Nagpur three months back. In a closed-door meeting held between the top three bosses of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat, Bhaiyyaji Joshi and Manmohan Vaidya, Sangh leaders coined a new election mantra for the BJP. For long now, the Sangh had been told that Modi’s victory in Gujarat could be attributed to the TINA effect. Taking off from the cue, Sangh seniors rearranged the acronym to create a new, positively defined slogan for its cadre, telling them the mantra this election would be NITA: NaMo Is The (only) Alternative.

In Delhi, meanwhile, the RSS was fine-tuning the party’s political strategy—right from the insides. A committee had been set up which included the RSS’s own trusted lieutenant Suresh Soni, Narendra Modi, the latter’s go-to man Amit Shah and BJP president Rajnath Singh. Another of its trusted men, former party president Nitin Gadkari, had been roped in as an easy-talking troubleshooter to resolve any crisis within vis-a-vis the RSS and the BJP’s potential allies.

The political team in Delhi is now working on the national campaign. The strategy laid down for it has the sanction of the RSS bosses and has been crafted by Modi and the Sangh in tandem. The focus, as sources confirmed to Outlook, is to “split the Opposition vote to ensure that Modi remains the only alternative for people to vote for”. A senior strategy planner explained, “Simply put, it’s a Modi versus all campa­ign...which means that anyone who is not with the NDA or the BJP for that matter is fighting Narendra Modi directly.” That makes the BJP’s gameplan a difficult bargain for the Opposition to deal with. It puts not just the Congress in a direct fight with Modi but even other parties like the TMC and the bjd who could perhaps still look at denting Modi’s voteshare through a Third Front alternative.

Elaborating further, a senior BJP leader said, “It is not without reason that Modi has been individually targeting Mamata and Naveen Patnaik. Modi’s attack on leaders from other parties is a calculated move.” Clearly, unlike previous elections, the BJP under Modi is sure that it is looking for “pre-poll alliances and not post-poll ones”. A source confirmed, “The party has paid dearly in the past because of post-poll allian­ces. This time Modi is convinced that if other parties tie up with the BJP before the elections, then those alliances will come from BJP’s position of strength. Every alliance coming the BJP’s way after the polls will be a compromise which will dent the party’s future.” Evidently, Modi wants to deprive his opponents of any bargaining power. A pre-poll alliance also gives him the added opportunity of dividing whatever voteshare the opposition may command in their own bastions of influence. It is with this in mind that the BJP has tied up with Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in Bihar. That one move, BJP insiders believe, has “weakened the prospects of both Laloo Yadav and Nitish Kumar in the eastern state of Bihar”.

The ripple effect of the LJP tie-up, party sources say, is now being felt in Haryana and Maharashtra (where too Dalit figures like Udit Raj and Ramdas Athavale have joined forces with the BJP). “We have an upper hand at deciding the future course of action and those opposed to the party or Modi himself are softening their stance”. The RSS is also doing its bit in swabbing out any spark of infighting within the Hindutva bandwagon. That’s why another swayamsevak, Gadkari, was pressed into action to convince rebel leader and MNS chief Raj Thackeray from playing spoilsport. Even as an official confirmation is awaited, sources in the BJP are already saying with some confidence that “Thackeray’s MNS may eventually help the Shiv Sena-BJP combine in Maha­rashtra by opting out of contesting the LS polls”.

Save the seats Gadkari meets Raj Thackeray in Mumbai. (Photograph by Fotocorp (From Outlook 17 March 2014)

There is little doubt that the consolidation of the Hindu/upper caste vote is an imperative for the BJP. So while the strategists are working hard to woo the OBC voters by projecting Modi’s own caste credentials and apparent affinity for the more centrist Congressman Sardar Patel, the party is carefully steering clear of anything that could possibly dilute Modi’s image of a Hindutva icon. So there has been no official affirmation of party chief Rajnath Singh’s veiled apology to Muslims over wrongs committed against them. A highly placed source clarified, “We are in the process of thrashing Congress’s bogus secularism card. You can call it a Hindutva versus votebank politics campaign...and if it works, we are sure the people will vote for Hindutva, and therefore the BJP.”

No wonder, at this stage an unsaid edict in the party is that there will be no apology for the 2002 Gujarat riots from either Modi or the BJP. Party leaders argue that the courts haven’t given a verdict against him and “we are campaigning to present Modi’s innocence in the case to the masses”. Admitting in hushed tones also that if an apology for the riots were ever to be offered, the party fears losing all ground gained so far and even “fears sliding down to single digits”. The emphasis, therefore, is to steer clear of the issue and concentrate on the “provide a stable government to save India” line. So while OBCs are being wooed on the anti-minority appeasement plank, the upper castes will be lured in on issues like inflation, price rise, corruption and development.

Meanwhile, work is still not done for office-bearers of the RSS. A nationwide campaign to galvanise the cadre throughout the country, ‘griha sampark’ or home contact has been devised to ensure Hindu voters come out in support of Modi. This is being executed with such precision that no nook of rural or urban India will be left out. Experienced ‘sanghis’ have been bumped up to work on the BJP’s election campaign (some RSS office-bearers have even been given charge of individual states to oversee it). Highly placed sources told Outlook, “The push has come right from the top. Senior RSS leaders are themselves working on the campaign on the ground.” The RSS cadre are carrying out a door-to-door campaign in remote corners of the country, working on Bhagwat’s specific instruction “to ensure 100 per cent voter registration and turnout on voting day”.

Even the top leadership is getting into the act. RSS chief Bhagwat spent 10 days in Uttar Pradesh motivating and meeting RSS cadre and local BJP leaders, followed by similar exercises in MP and Rajasthan. Such programmes are being carried out by senior Sangh leaders Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi, in-charge of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra; Dattatreya Hosbale, in-charge of Karnataka and Bihar; Krishnagopal, looking after UP and Assam; and Suresh Soni, taking care of MP and Chhattisgarh. Work done by the cadre and office-bearers is reviewed on a weekly basis by the Sangh bosses. A pracharak said, “The election will be managed down to the booth level. Over the past few months, online registration of volunteers for the Sangh has been streamlined. Modi’s advent has spiralled volunteer registration five times over.” 

Not just that, Sangh-inclined professionals from the IT and marketing sectors are roped in on a regular basis for campaigning work and fund-raising, especially on social media. RSS affiliates like the VHP, ABVP, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Rashtra Sevika Samiti, Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Muslim Rashtr­iya Manch are all part of the momentum-building exercise.

Over three days starting March 7, as Sangh seniors congregate for the meeting of its highest policymaking body, the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS), in Bangalore, the job at hand is not just to spur the thousands of cadre gathered there but more importantly to ensure a decisive NDA victory. It’s the  final stretch, 2014 will not just clinch Modi and the BJP’s future but even determine both the survival and the relevance of the RSS and its agenda in the years to come. For a “nationalist organisation” facing serious terror charges, Mandate 2014 then becomes the RSS’s only clear and present road to redemption.

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Change Of Colours

How a ‘cultural’ organisation went openly political in 2014

• The RSS is heavily invested in Modi’s PM candidature as he is the first pracharak in its history aiming for the top job
• Sangh support for Modi, as against that for L.K. Advani in ’09, comes with the understanding that RSS will be allowed to address “core issues”
• RSS cadre have fanned out across the country, armed with voter lists, visiting homes asking for a decisive vote for Narendra Modi
• The BJP paints it as a ‘Modi vs everybody else’ campaign as the RSS wants pre-poll allies rather than post-poll pals to drive home agenda
• Consolidation of Hindu/upper caste votes in 2014 seen as an imperative in long-term RSS gameplan; hence push on voter registration

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Human Face Of Hindutva

The metamorphosis from inanimate symbols to a living, breathing icon

• 1910 All India Hindu Conference at Allahabad flags off campaign for rights for Hindus
• 1914 Hindu Mahasabha formed in Amritsar
• 1925 Foundation for RSS laid by Dr Keshavrao Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur
• 1940s HMS locks horns with Muslim League over Partition, the tricolour vs saffron flag, Vande Mataram
• 1946-48 Riots in country over communal divide, Partition and killing of Gandhi by a Hindu militant, Nathuram Godse
• 1951 RSS starts a political alternative to the Congress, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. Founded by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee.
• 1966 Anti-cow slaughter movement in Delhi becomes a national issue
• 1967 Jan Sangh wins seats in the parliamentary election for the first time
• 1975 Hindu groups find space to fight with the existing political system under a socialist banner
• 1984 ‘Janmabhoomi ka tala kholo andolan’ to spark nationwide demand for Ram Janmabhoomi
• 2002 Thousands die in Gujarat riots, giving rise to Moditva, a new face of hard Hindutva.
• 2007 Ram Sethu movement for the preservation of the mythical bridge across the Palk Straits
• 2013-14 Modi becomes the face for hard Hindutva and projected as the PM candidate of the BJP

By Prarthna Gahilote in Mumbai