India News Online » News Analysis » Indian Politics » 

Move away from personality cult, RSS tells BJP

	June 26, 2006

A two-day interaction between the RSS and

the BJP on issues related to coordination

among various RSS affiliates has ended with

the RSS reportedly telling the BJP to move away

from the personality cult. The meeting took place at

former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s

residence. A senior party leader said the discussions

were confined to areas of concern to the two

organisations. This had mainly to do with

“coordination” among Sangh affiliates, especially

with an eye on the next round of Assembly elections,

including in Uttar Pradesh.

The meeting was described as a “routine” and

“regular” affair, a mechanism through which the

RSS keeps abreast of developments within the BJP,

one of its largest organisations. The RSS has

recommended supremacy of ideology, the party

organisation and a disciplined cadre.

The RSS reportedly expressed its disapproval

of a handful of leaders meeting and taking decisions

instead of through the formal “collective” process of

decision-making. Once again, this insistence is being

seen as finger-pointing in the direction of Advani

who had recently on several occasions convened

meetings at his residence in the absence of the party

president and announced decisions.

The recent amendment to the BJP’s constitution

has strengthened the hands of the ‘pracharaks’ in

the party who come to it via the RSS and who

maintain a close link with the parent organisation.

This will automatically give the RSS a firmer grasp

over the BJP’s party machine.

Meanwhile, the BJP got some relief from its

travails when the Janata Dal (Secular), its coalition

partner in Karnataka, backed down on its move to

push through legislation for Government takeover

of the Bangalore-Mysore infrastructure corridor

project, the country’s first private highway project.

Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda announced

this at a meeting of the JD(S) legislature party on

June 18. He said the decision has been taken in the

interest of the coalition. The BJP had been opposing

JD(S)’s takeover proposal.