The umbilical cord which bound the RSS with the Jana Sangh was all too transparent. Smarting from the Congress government’s treatment after Mahatma Gandhi assassination, the RSS felt the need to float a political party to protect its interests. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was an outsider carefully chosen to lead the JS, but the entire manpower and organisation structure was from the RSS. Vajpayee, Advani and Nanaji Deshmukh were pracharaks loaned to the fledgling party by the mother organisation.

In the case of the Jana Sangh’s successor, the BJP, the connecting links have frayed, although not snapped. As the party grew a large numbers of workers and leaders had no link with the RSS. Though even now most senior leaders — whether Advani, Vajpayee, Rajnath Singh, Modi or Jaitley — have risen through the sangh parivar network. Those who have not — like Sushma Swaraj, Varun Gandhi or Yashwant Sinha — realise that for survival in the party it pays to have amicable relations with the RSS bosses.

Whenever the BJP is in trouble the RSS is called to bail it out. The RSS is an integral part of most BJP election campaigns. Its cadres take charge of the nitty-gritty of the organisation, whether arranging for microphones or laying out the durries at election rallies. Often the RSS is expected to even produce the audiences.

It is not as if the RSS has not taken its pound of flesh in return for favours rendered. One of the most visible instances of RSS suzerainty was at the swearing in of Vajpayee’s first cabinet in 1998 when K.S. Sudershan looked triumphant in the front row and Vajpayee crestfallen since he had been forced to drop Jaswant Singh as finance minister at the eleventh hour at Sudershan’s instance. By his second term in office, however, Vajpayee had mastered the art of dealing with the RSS while charting his own course. He mollified discontents by dispatching RSS veterans to the comfort of Raj Bhavans and by occasionally making noises about the temple at Ayodhya. It was clear that the real centre of power was 7 Race Course Road and not the RSS zonal headquarters at Jhandewalan.

... contd.