RSS danger

For those BJP leaders who are worried about the growing assertiveness of the RSS post-Lok Sabha elections, they have a sympathiser in the CPI. For the Left party feels that the Sangh fountainhead’s increasing political activism, if continues unchecked, will “badly restrict” the BJP’s “legitimate” role. An anonymous article in the latest issue of CPI’s weekly mouthpiece New Age says the RSS has heralded a new trend of hyper activism — where it gives opinion about every subject from international conflicts to caste and cow. Although the RSS’ intention may be to expand its base, it is potentially threatening to the BJP, the article says.

To back its view, it reels out recent instances where the RSS openly differed with the BJP. Whether it is the open praise for Rahul Gandhi’s village visits or the thumbs up given for Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s anti-Naxal operations, the RSS, it says, is seeking to assert that it has the last word on policy matters.

“Traditionally, it leaves comments of topical issues to the political wing. The new assertion, RSS oldies say, is a clear signal for the BJP leaders to constantly keep the parent body in the loop on all emerging issues,” it says concluding that if the RSS sets the policies on issues and the BJP is forced to toe the line, the latter will lose its political space as a party.

SP bonhomie

In the form of a news report, the edition surprisingly gives prominent coverage to the issues that are bound to be raised by the Samajwadi Party, which ditched the Left to join hands with the Congress in 2008, in the coming by-elections. The headline of the report itself tells the story. “Central forces be sent to UP: SP”, it read. The article talks about each and every issue which the SP, Congress and the BJP may raise, deftly listing out the failures of the Mayawati government. The BSP was the Left’s non-electoral ally in the last Lok Sabha elections.

... contd.