02 September,2009 08:33 AM IST | | Chandran Iyer
Every day brings more bad news for the BJP. Now, the some hardliners in its parent organisation, the RSS, believe the BJP has run its course and that it's time to float a new party.
"A section of RSS hardliners feel that some leaders in BJP have become larger than life and they are cocking a snook at the RSS. Hence there are two optionsu00a0one is to force BJP to toe the Hindutva line and the other is to float a different party," said Dr R H Tupkari, former chief of RSS's intellectual wing. This issue has been raised in several RSS meetings.
Echoing similar views, Dilip Deodhar, a keen RSS watcher who has penned several books on the outfit, said, "The political wing of RSS has seen many changes. First, the RSS had launched the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). Then in 1977, after the Emergency, the BJS became the BJP. If the RSS could change the political wing of the party earlier, then why not now? There is definitely a strong demand from some RSS hardliners to float a new party."
Quoting M S Golwalkar, who served as the second sarsanghchalak (supreme leader) of RSS from 1940 to 1973, Deodhar said, "When somebody asked him if a political wing will be in RSS's interest, he said 'BJS to gajar ki pungi hai, bajgai to bajgai nahin to kha lenge.' That's the case with the BJP now. If it does not serve the purpose of the RSS, all the parent organisation has to do is to withdraw its swayamsevaks and put them to other use."
BJP will crash
Tupkari believes the BJP needs the support of the RSS, not the other way round. "For example, in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, the BJP hardly had any base. But it won the elections only because the RSS had done tremendous work in the tribal areas through its Vanwasi Kalyan Ashram. Similarly in Rajasthan, the party came to power only because of RSS backing. The day the RSS takes back its support, the BJP will crash like a pack of cards," said Tupkari.
Another staunch RSS activist added, "I strongly feel that only a new party can serve RSS's purpose. In the BJP, leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani failed to toe the Hindutva line. Vajpayee tried to project himself as too secular, while Advani projected himself as Loh Purush. But their actions defied Hindutva ideals."
