After the BJP’s unexpected defeat of 2004, the RSS again began to bare its fangs. Sudershan’s public criticism of Vajpayee and Advani in a ‘Walk the Talk’ interview created a ripple in the entire sangh parivar and many even in the RSS felt that he had overstepped the line. When Advani negated all that the RSS had stood for by describing Jinnah as secular, the RSS came out openly to force a change of guard. Rajnath Singh was appointed party president only with RSS approval. Nevertheless Advani and Vajpayee continue to be the most popular and powerful figures in the BJP even today, and the RSS cannot ignore them.

Outsiders who perceive the sarsanghchalak’s position in the RSS to be absolutely supreme are ignorant of its organisational make-up. In the RSS decisions are arrived at through consensus and conclaves. The sarsanghchalak may have the ultimate say, but unlike his taciturn predecessors, who rarely made a public declaration except on Vijaya Dashmi, Sudershan has diminished his own position by speaking too much and out of turn and patronising wrong candidates for promotion even in the BJP. He also has the disadvantage of being more than a decade junior to both Advani and Vajpayee in the sangh parivar, where seniority is respected.

Many are not aware that while the sarsanghchalak is the titular head, it is the general secretary who is the hands-on organisational boss. This makes Mohan Bhagwat effectively more powerful than Sudershan. In any case the RSS leadership is not monolithic and does not speak with one voice. If the RSS finds it difficult to have total sway over the BJP today it is because the RSS, like the BJP, is plagued by internal differences. After all, there is a symbiotic relationship between the mother organisation and its most visible offspring.