RSS leaders to meet BJP general secretaries in-charge of Organisation next week in Surajkund
Unlike during the Vajpayee regime, the leadership of the BJP and RSS are refraining from taking a confrontationist approach, with the party calling the shots on the political line and its mentor conceding.
The new synergy between the two in the Modi regime was evident in the past week in two instances-- the RSS toeing the party line to agree to sack its Goa chief Subhash Velingkar and the its trade union wing deciding against joining the anti-government all India strike on September 2.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underlined the need for coordination among government, BJP and RSS, narrowing the space for conflict among them. After a series of coordination meetings, which have been addressed by Modi, RSS full-timers deputed in the party, including general secretaries in-charge of Organisation, are meeting in Surajkund in Haryana from September 10 to 12. The meeting is to be addressed by RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi and joint general secretary Krishna Gopal, sources said.
From the Goa episode, the indication was clear that the hard hindutva line will not work for the party where it is trying to reach out to communities outside its traditional constituencies.
Sources said it was a message for the RSS even in other states, particularly Kerala and northeast, where also the BJP was wooing the Christian community. On the other hand, it was a clear signal from the RSS that it would not tolerate any outright opposition to the BJP and its leaders.
Defence minister and former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar had managed to take everyone along in the state and it was his line that has prevailed, sources said. The RSS, on the other hand, did not resist and sacked Velingkar, convenor of the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM), which was protesting state grants to English medium schools, taking on the state government.
The RSS leadership concurred, as the party conveyed that it would be difficult to retain the state, which goes to polls early next year, with a hardline approach.
The BJP has been worried about Goa, where the Christians had voted for BJP when Parrikar was the party's face. The BJP, which won 21 of the 28 seats, has six Christian MLAs in the state where the community accounts for 25 per cent of the population. Besides, the AAP has set its eyes on Goa.
BJP president Amit Shah has also asked the Kerala state unit to reach out to Christians in the state, where the party recently won one seat in assembly elections, making inroads for the first time. The party is trying to induce a sense of confidence in the community, which forms 18.38 per cent of the population. In the northeast, the BJP is trying to gain ground in states which have a significant Christian presence.
Meanwhile, Velingkar was quoted by news agencies as saying that Parrikar and union minister Nitin Gadkari were behind his ouster by "lobbying.... And wrongly feeding the RSS high command."
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