BOOK REVIEW: MOHAN BHAGWAT BY KINGSHUK NAG

BOOK REVIEW

TITLE: MOHAN BHAGWAT-INFLUENCER IN CHIEF

AUTHOR: KINGSHUK NAG

PUBLISHER: RUPA , 2018

PRICE: Rs.500/-

 The Bid For Hindu Rashtra :  Mohan Bhagwat Sets The Agenda For Bharat

The visit by Pranab Mukherjee, former president of India, to the RSS headquarters at Nagpur, earlier in 2018, has set the ideological stage for the 2019 general elections.

Pranab Mukherjee’s political career has spanned the decades from the long innings of absolutist Indira Gandhi, all the way through to the present dispensation. He has been a consummate Congress politician and man-for-all-seasons at the highest echelons of government.

Kingshuk Nag, in this, his 8th book, has used Mukherjee’s illustrative and unabashed tribute to the importance of the RSS today, for his insightful study on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

Earlier, Nag, a veteran former Times of India staffer, has written books on Narendra Modi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Subhas Chandra Bose, The BJP, fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya and the Kingfisher Airlines imbroglio, and the infamous Satyam scam featuring its key actor, Ramalinga Raju.

The symbolism of the RSS and its Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat at centre-stage in today’s politics, stands in stark contrast to the RSS’ much vilified past during the decades of Nehru-Gandhi domination and this book is therefore very timely.

The RSS, indicates Nag, prefers to paint on a much wider canvas than the Nehruvian reference points of Western inspired modernism. It draws inspiration from “Bharat”, albeit an inclusive continuum, that is centuries old, rich in history, tradition, knowledge and culture.

That the time has come to acknowledge and incorporate this broader view of India’s nationhood is possibly why Pranab Mukherjee went to Nagpur. However, other, more politically opportunistic reasons, have also been advanced for the visit.

The RSS, often painted as an anachronism by the Congress, seeks to derive its vision of Hindu Rashtra from the gaze of millennia. That this automatically tends to dwarf and render shallow the Nehruvian vision of a “secular” India is the very problem according to the Libleft.  

The RSS and the NDA has gained traction however precisely because the idea of Nehruvian secularism has been moulded to discriminate against the majority community of Hindus.

The Indian electorate has awakened to this discrimination against Hindus combined with a distaste for the blatantly dynastic politics promoting the Nehru family gradually. This found its first expression in voting in non-Congress governments in the eighties and nineties as the erstwhile captive vote banks began to migrate to other political parties.

Then the seeming anathema of voting for a “communal” BJP, as opposed to a socialist and diverse Janata Dal, was also penetrated when the AB Vajpayee government completed a full-term in power.

The induction of more and more RSS stalwarts into key positions in the BJP, both in the Party and Government has marked a shift during the current Bhagwat-Modi  period. However, despite this, effective in governance has not exactly been stellar.

Vajpayee tended to hold the RSS at arms-length in governance. Modi has a much better equation with Bhagwat, the same age as himself, as Nag points out. Both are 1950 born, well after independence.

The lines have indeed blurred between RSS as the ideological compass, and BJP as the vehicle of governance. However, some differences in emphasis are apparent. Modi tends to regard development  or “vikas”  as a universal panacea. The RSS wants Hindu Rashtra and some historic  wrongs against the Hindus righted on a priority basis.

It is clear Modi and the BJP could not have won without RSS support in 2014, though the magnitude of the win, took the RSS by surprise.   

This sort of majority win may repeat in 2019, given a weak and disparate Opposition. This, despite Narendra Modi having failed to keep many of the promises he made. And the effects of controversial decisions such as the sudden demonetization, that is thought to have hurt small businesses and the poor.

Also, the Modi government has done next to nothing to promote the RSS agenda for a Hindu Rashtra.  Still, the RSS may be constrained to back Modi once again as its best hope for realising its vision in the future.

The construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya is a sticking  point, as is the unchanged status of J&K, despite RSS inductee Ram Madhav being in-charge of party matters in the latter state.  The Mandir construction, long pending, is coming to a head now. The pressure is coming from the VHP, the SS, groupings of seers and mahants, members, some union ministers of the Modi government,  and, of course, Mohan Bhagwat and the RSS itself.

Interestingly, there is support for an urgent commencement of the Ram Temple construction from the Shia Wakf Board too. The Supreme Court however continues to drag its feet on the title dispute.

Nag refrains from putting words into Bhagwat’s mouth throughout the book. Instead, he lays out the multiple concerns of the RSS as very much a work-in-progress.  

Of paramount concern to a pragmatic and modernising Bhagwat today is BJP’s and particularly Modi’s winnability.

 Today, even as the RSS exerts its influence on the choice of electoral candidates, policy matters and union ministers alike it has not made much headway on core issues. The commitment therefore to a second term for Modi and the BJP is perforce intact.

This is the 8^th decade of the RSS’ existence though Bhagwat is only the sixth sarsanghchalak. Because of Bhagwat’s relative youth, ascending to the top job at 59, the reach of the RSS has been markedly extended. It is active in Bengal, and more effectively, in the North East, for the first time. In terms of inclusion, the Muslims and Dalits feature significantly in the RSS structure today.

Bhagwat has been less successful in influencing educational policies of the government, possibly because of a large cadre of entrenched Leftists.

The fates of Narendra Modi and Mohan Bhagwat are, on the face of it, intertwined, looking at 2019. But waiting in the wings, is Nagpur’s first choice for prime ministership, should Modi falter.

Nitin Gadkari, elected from Nagpur, is the only union minister who has had a free hand in the Modi government, and the only other senior leader with both Modi’s development credentials, BJP organizational experience, and consummate RSS backing.

For:  The Sunday Pioneer AGENDA BOOKS

(1,011 words)

November 8^th, 2018

Gautam Mukherjee