The Modi-RSS plan
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was closeted with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and his top colleagues for as long as three hours at the Hindutva outfit’s Nagpur headquarters on Sunday.
This appears unusual. It is not clear whether the CM was receiving a dressing down for being uppity, or whether he was suing for peace and appealing for help in the campaigning for the December Assembly election, and possibly also for his subsequent ambitious push to be the BJP’s official candidate for Prime Minister in 2014.
There is something about men from the RSS stables when they arrive at constitutional authority. After Atal Behari Vajpayee became PM, he had little time for the fuddy-duddies of Nagpur. Ditto Mr Modi when he became CM, and especially after he cemented his place in Hindutva’s iconography as the “strong man” for keeping a straight face when the Muslims were being set upon by Hindu supremacist brigades, post-Godhra.
In slow degrees, Mr Modi alienated various Hindutva factions in Gujarat through his “arrogant” ways, leading even the RSS to worry about his “unilateral” style. But with state polls round the corner, the CM needs all the help he can get and must get off the high horse. If the RSS does bless him (as seems likely), it will be useful to know on what terms. The conditions are likely to be linked to RSS’ wider plan for the BJP should the saffron party be within sniffing distance of power in 2014.
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