A BJP without the RSS

Can we imagine Indian political thought without the ideas of Manu ? Certainly not .  A BJP without the RSS would look same as a Nazi Germany without the Hitler, a communist without  Marx, Maurya's without Chanakya , Harijans without Ambedkar , Middle East without Oil, a republican without Lincoln or Reagan , Europe without EU , a world without UN, Pakistan without terrorism, a car without wheels and the most important India without Cricket. Then after so many parallels , how can I in my wildest dreams imagine BJP without RSS. Well we would the way we can to an extent imagine Europe without EU or a world without UN . 

The class 10th civics textbook of NCERT describes BJP as ' a party formed in 1980 and has close ideological ties with the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh' . Even if you google about BJP, wikipedia too describes it the same . Forget about NCERT and wikipedia , BJP leaders too enthusiastically prophes BJP as a party which draws its ideology from RSS. Therefore, the heading of the article might seem very obscure to many . Well at no point I challenge the idea that BJP is not an off spring of RSS , saying it so would surely be the biggest blunder but what I aim to draw is that how BJP would look in the absence of RSS ? Will it still have an impact upon the massess or the slogan of 'Namaste Saada vatsyale Matrabhoomi' attracts all.

One obvious question which erupts into the minds of some is , if BJP and RSS are so much interconnected , why did the need of BJP came into being ? Was RSS incompetent or was it a dispute that eventually made this bifurcation. To understand this we need to move to the times Bhartiya Jan Sangh was founded. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee it's founder who was also the 44th president of Hindu Mahasabha gave an idea to open membership of Hindu Mahasabha to all communities. This idea threw backlash upon him within Mahasabha prompting Mukherjee to resign and form Jan Sangh , a new political party in collaboration with the RSS. 

Both Atal Bihari and Modi and even most of the Ministers of BJP have offered homage to RSS founders, it's presidents, and it's ideologues. May it be Savarkar who believed that the image of Hindutva is much larger than Hinduism , Golwalkar who believed that muslims in India should we treated like Jews were treated in Nazi Germany , Savitri Devi who termed Hitler as an avatar of Vishnu or Deen Dayal Upadhyay who preached Integral humanism and rejected Golwalkar's idea. 

If u see the list of BJP president's , CM's , almost all some way or the other have offered RSS prayer , visited Nagpur many times and have attended Sangh's Shakha. There have been numerous instances where BJP's choice of a CM has been influenced by the person's ties with RSS, the incident of Devendra Fadnavis being one of the many. Prime Minister Modi rose as the PM by working in RSS for years and chanting Namas......, BJP's acting President JP Ladhaa came from ABVP who is a student wing of RSS, still RSS felt for a stronger ideologue than Ram laal as party general secretary who has been replaced by BL Santosh who is said to be a more pure Sanghi. What does this more pure mean ? Does it mean brooming in the RSS office like PM modi once did or attending Shakhas in Short Khakhi Pants. May be it would mean the same as someone having close ties with Gandhi family in Congress mean. Amit Shah and Vasundhara Raje are however said to be two leaders who are not so much RSS people. Still , Amit Shah has to go and meet Mohan Bhagvat at Nagpur when the call rings or Vasundhara Raje has to rush fast to save her seat when the danger of her loosing the CM post comes. This takes us to all the parallels I drew in the opening of the article .

Now lets move into the hypothetical imagination of a BJP without RSS. For that we have to forget completely the presence of RSS in Indian politics. Now if RSS was not there , it is possible that the idea of Ram Janma bhoomi would have not been such a big issue. A simple divorce would have never become Shah Bano , we would have had many more scheduled languages as placing more languages in the recognised list is against the RSS idea of a hindi Rashtra. Many would say that incidents like Godhra would not have taken place but I disagree because such communal riots were not due to an idea of a particular organisation or sect, they happen because of many other political equations too. Also , if RSS was not there , many hindus would not have series asylum and help after partition. If RSS would not be there , we would not have seen the divide of Hindu v/s Muslim fraction in elections . Then, ideas of Development would have gained more signifance , issues like Jobs , female security etc would be of much importance . In other words , we would have possibly seen Prime Ministeral debate like US . Why is it not possible today because then what would have candidates argued , both would have thrown roorbacks at each other with the name of Ram Mandir and Article 370. We would have not seen News Anchors shouting on news channels on Maulavi and a Sanghi and gaining their TRP.

It is possible that BJP would have been nothing as a party. It is also possible that it would not have taken so many years to form a Majority government in 2014. Why I am saying so is the fact that Congress came to power because leaders like Indira Gandhi lured people through Gareebi Slogan and BJP failed to catch the nerves. Why BJP won 2014 was the fact that it did lure people through employment , poverty schemes at the same time did convince people of giving 'Ram Lala' a mandir too. This made a voter thing before placing his finger on the EVM that this party promises me material benefit of jobs also and does fulfill my spiritual belief of Ram Mandir too, so let's give 'Kamal' a chance and see what 'Kamaal' it does. 

Now the bigger question, is BJP really moving away from RSS especially with the coming of Modi 2.0 . Well RSS's role in 2014 election was more than it had this time in forming the government. At the same time it is not true to say that Modi sweared in as the PM again just on his own . RSS did play a role in Central and North India this time too if not like 2014. 

The fact that Modi and Amit Shah had to go and meet Mohan Bhagwat  after the election results clears shows us the picture whether a BJP without the RSS is possible or not . Politics is a dynamic concept , it changes with time . Let's see whether this dynamic concept will change the dynamics of BJP-RSS in the coming times.