The 'election' of 65-year-old Dattatreya Hosabale (popularly known as Datta ji), as the fifteenth sarkaryavaha or general secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), underscores a newfound rational understanding within its top brass, regarding the advantage of having a powerful and ‘sympathetic’ government in office.
In contrast to the past practice of puritanically labelling politics as a ‘corrupting influence’, this change at its top echelons indicates that the RSS leadership has now evolved a rational and more practical understanding of the necessity of power.
The change in the current leadership’s viewpoint marks a dramatic shift in its understanding of State power, and the organisation’s relationship with it.
In more than one way, this altered perception of party (and electoral) politics will eventually lead to the recalibration of the RSS's raison d'être for its continued existence.
From visualising a role for itself limited to refurbishing, organising and strengthening Hindu society, the RSS now is beginning to envisage a role for itself not just in influencing policy, but also being engaged in the activities of the State in certain sectors, albeit, through some of its affiliates who of course, shall have to be reformed post-haste.
The elevation of Hosabale has been a long time in the coming and is certainly not a dramatic epiphany. Speculations about Hosabale taking charge of the chief executive’s office of the RSS first did the rounds in 2015, and with greater intensity in 2018.
On both occasions, the change from Suresh (Bhaiyyaji) Joshi was prevented because the Mohan Bhagwat-led leadership wished to maintain a degree of separation from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The RSS, Realpolitik & Modi & Hosabale’s Climb
For long, the RSS presided over the Sangh Parivar, which, although outwardly united, was clearly divided between those from the shakha system and the ones either deputed 'outside', or who made 'lateral' entry into the ideological fraternity. People within the shakha system, often synonymous with the Nagpur group (although many from outside Maharashtra were part of this lobby), considered themselves as dvijas or the ‘twice born’, who stayed away from the morally degrading influence of realpolitik.
The posture was unambiguously hypocritical: those deputed to other affiliated organisations were first incubated within the Sangh (or shakha) system and then sent out. Likewise, many who moved across the edifice and then began rising in hierarchy within the RSS, were inducted by the leadership in the first instance. It was like the proverbial ‘having the cake and eating it too’.
For instance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent more than a decade and half as a pracharak, holding various organisational responsibilities and posts, before he was deputed to the BJP in 1987.
Likewise, although Hosabale spent the formative years as a key Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad functionary, in 2004 he was appointed the sah-baudhik pramukh (second-in-command in the intellectual wing of the RSS), an important position to which only the ideologically sound are appointed.
Although Modi, as well as Hosabale, kept growing from strength to strength in their respective arenas, some sections continued viewing them as being ‘lesser mortals’. In 2013, the RSS leadership, okayed Modi's nomination as the BJP's prime ministerial face after much dithering, not out of choice, but because of unprecedented pressure from below.
How Modi’s Rise ‘Mellowed Down’ Mohan Bhagwat
The unexpected majority on its own for the BJP in 2014 made Modi not just less dependent on allies, but also forced the realisation onto the RSS that his popularity had outmatched that of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Like Modi, Hosabale’s viewpoint was at variance with the traditional constricted view of the Nagpur leadership. He either actually was, or was perceived to be ‘close to Modi’, the truth shall not be known. But, that was sufficient for a 'no-change' decision at the triennials in 2015 and 2018.
Between the previous ‘election meeting’ of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha in 2018 and now, the enhanced mandate — secured by the Modi-led BJP in 2019 — has been the most significant development.
This has possibly led to the mellowing of Mohan Bhagwat's personality and it appears that his new appreciation of Modi has trickled into the organisation too.
This is evident when juxtaposing his public appreciation of the prime minister's pitch for an Atmanirbhar Bharat on several occasions since May 2020, with Bhagwat's assertion in March 2014, amid the electoral campaign, that it was not “our job to chant Namo-Namo”.
Bhagwat also cautioned after the 2014 verdict, against personality cults as well as against personality-centric politics.
In another significant assertion, he disagreed with the view that the 2014 victory was "solely due" to Modi's "personal pull".
Why Mohan Bhagwat Hasn’t Allowed Modi’s ‘Boat to be Rocked’
It must be noted that the RSS brass was conspicuous in its silence when the Ahmedabad cricket stadium was renamed after Modi. This was despite principled opposition to vyakti pujan (personal deification) within the RSS since 1940.
The Sangh Parivar is haunted by the decade it was out of power after the shock defeat in 2004. There is near unanimity that hostile relations between the BJP leaders (read Vajpayee) and the RSS (chiefly the then sarsanghchalak, KS Sudarshan) was one of the prime factors. Sudarshan allowed affiliated organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh a free run, taking positions and launching agitations, which embarrassed the government.
Since 2014, despite his misgivings about Modi, Bhagwat ensured that no affiliated organisation was allowed to rock Modi’s boat on any issue.
In contrast to Vajpayee being prevented from appointing a council of ministers of his own choice, Bhagwat allowed Modi a carte blanche, although reports of suggestions were heard.
Unlike in the past, no Parivar stalwart heads any of the major affiliated organisations now — while some like Ashok Singhal and Dattopant Thengadi passed away, others like Praveen Togadia were pushed to the margins.
Hosabale’s Appointment: RSS Coming to Terms With Altered Power Relations
In the process of coming to terms with Modi's traits and a few of his 'discomforting' (for RSS) policy initiatives, Bhagwat and his lot have also come to appreciate Modi's deep ideological commitment to the core beliefs of the RSS. This is their ‘payback time’ for decisions on Kashmir, CAA and the Ram temple.
From the late 1980s, when the BJP emerged from the periphery to centre-stage, the Nagpur-based leadership was always referred to as ‘Big Brother’.
Post-2014, the ‘younger’ brother had grown to become a twin. The 2019 verdict and now Hosabale’s election is testimony to the RSS brass coming to terms with the altered power equations.
It has accepted the de facto alteration in internal standing in return for having Modi's ear when needed.
What shape Hosabale will give to this new chapter in RSS-BJP relations will need to be keenly tracked for two watershed events in the future: the 2024 polls and the centenary of the RSS in 2025, when both Modi and Bhagwat will also turn 75.
(The writer is an author and journalist based in Delhi. His most recent book is ‘The RSS: Icons of the Indian Right’. He can be reached at @NilanjanUdwin. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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