War Of Dominance Between Modi And Bhagwat Acquires Curious Shape

The battle for dominance between Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, believed to be the protégé of the Modi-Shah duo, is only the prelude; the ‘big fight’ is between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for the ‘Hindu Hridaya Samrat’ crown, though post Lok Sabha elections it will be intellectual dishonesty to think of Modi as a Hindutva icon. To a vast section of Hindus, Modi turned out to be a rolling stone who gathered no Hindutva moss.

And the RSS top brass is determined to find a replacement for Modi. This, despite Modi’s lieutenants going all aggressive. They have declared war against BJP leaders close to the RSS. So much so, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who till now had given Modi a long rope, has decided that Modi must go. On July 18, Bhagwat observed, while addressing cadres at Gumla in Jharkhand, “that man wants to become Superman, even Bhagwan”. He didn’t mention Modi by name, but the audience understood.

“Is there ever an end to progress? Development is such a thing that once we reach it, we realise we can go further. When we reach our goal, we see that there is still more to go… man then wants to become a superman… in movies they show Superman who has extraordinary powers. So a human wants to have such power… but he doesn’t stop there. He then wants to become a Dev. But Devtas say Bhagwan is bigger than us, so then he wants to become Bhagwan,” the RSS chief elaborated.

Modi cannot complain. He created his own hell. Modi’s “advisers”, like Amit Shah and possibly JP Nadda, have made Modi self-delude that he is a “maker of destiny” for crores of Indians. Modi dared to even challenge the RSS. Post-2024 Lok Sabha elections, the chasm between the BJP and RSS has widened and Nadda went to the extent of saying that the BJP doesn’t need the RSS. Meanwhile, Modi continues to be consumed by his autocratic hangover, not realizing that he was eroding the relevance of the BJP. Modi’s autocratic style will be his political death.

Is it coincidence that the Yogi openly challenged Modi’s authority by replacing the chief secretary loyal to Modi with his own favourite, Manoj Singh? NDA leaders Nitish Kumar, Chirag Paswan and Jayant Chaudhary, who are virtually the crutches of Modi, did not mince words when opposing Yogi Adityanath’s attempt to arouse communal passions using the Kanwaria yatra. The Yogi ordered shopkeepers, vendors, handcart hawkers on Kanwaria routes to put their names on their shops and carts. It is part of a well-designed plan to snatch the initiative from Modi and present Yogi as the symbol of RSS’s Hindutva. The claim that “it was done to avoid confusion” is not tenable. Yogi was desperate enough to use any weapon against Modi.

The RSS wanted to put an end to the raging controversy. RSS joint general-secretary Arun Kumar convened a two-day meeting of senior BJP leaders and ministers to sort out the differences between Modi and Yogi. But the July 20-21 meeting was cancelled after Modi-loyalists leaked the information. “RSS wanted the meeting kept a secret. The Sangh did not want to appear like a peacemaker between BJP leaders blaming each other for the party’s dismal show in the Hindi heartland,” a senior RSS leader said.

Arun Kumar had asked CM Yogi Adityanath, Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, Deputy CM No.2 Brajesh Pathak and BJP state president Bhupendra Chaudhary to be at meeting. Yogi Adityanath cancelled all his programmes for the two days but, sensing the mood of RSS leaders, both Yogi and Modi loyalists wanted to skip the meeting, which would have laid bare the failures and fallacies of Modi and his major domo Amit Shah.

The Yogi was even ready with documents and other evidence to prove his case against Modi and Shah. Apparently, the duo was plotting against the Yogi. For public consumption it was said that the meeting had been “postponed” when in reality, the RSS did not want news of the meeting in the public domain. People shouldn’t speculate if it favoured one particular group/leader over another. The façade of neutrality must be maintained at all costs. But the key reason why the meeting was scrapped was the fear of losing face if Modi supporters refused to agree to “suggestions and decisions”.

That Modi challenged RSS should not go out to the public at large. The RSS mission to review the disappointing performance of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections could not succeed. Nobody is talking of when the next meeting would be held, but the Yogi struck fast and first, leaving Modi loyalists in the lurch. Postponement of the meeting may have saved Modi and Shah from public humiliation but their position within the saffron ecosystem has become more vulnerable. It has simply strengthened the belief that Modi and Shah were at fault and that they were responsible for the beating the BJP got in the Lok Sabha elections.

At the extended executive meet, Keshav Maurya had blamed Yogi government’s “apathy” towards party workers as the prime reason for the BJP winning only 33 of UP’s 80 Lok Sabha seats compared to 62 seats in 2019. He alleged state government officials had become too powerful under Adityanath and were ignoring ruling party workers. But Yogi was armed with complaints from the ground level RSS cadres and block chiefs that cabinet colleagues of Modi did not respond to their requests. Interestingly only some time back these RSS cadres apprised their top leaders with the same nature of complaints against Yogi and his ministers and state BJP leaders.

At the state meet Maurya had also said “the organisation is always bigger than the government”, obliquely blaming Yogi for the BJP’s electoral setback. His accusation was a warning for Yogi to abide by the dictates of Modi and Shah. The meeting between the RSS leaders, party leaders and Yogi was supposed to review and find out the real reasons for the dismal performance. The meeting had acquired serious implications after Modi loyalists and Yogi supporters engaged in public outrage. It is alleged that Modi loyalists kept away on Shah’s instructions.

Is Amit Shah the villain of the piece, responsible for endangering Modi’s position? For the last five years, Shah has been conspiring against Yogi and replacing him with Keshav Prasad Maurya. But the Yogi enjoys the support of the RSS because of his hard Hindu posture and sanctity and purity in personal life. The Yogi is not only a diehard Muslim hater; he also nurses a marked apathy towards Brahmins and Bhumihars.

RSS will take its own independent stand. The BJP not only lost 37 seats, the defeat was a serious setback for RSS, which now will find it hard to execute its expansion plan. In a tactical move the RSS has tried to send the message that “it works for shaping public opinion and does not get directly involved in elections” (Sangh lagataar lokmat parishkar ka kaam karta hai aur seedhe chunav ke karyon mein nahi lagta hai, aur who kaam is baar bhi kiya hai).

The strained relations in the BJP and RSS’s readiness to strike at anytime has put Modi in a tight situation. For the first time since he became third-time Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has been warned by ally partners Nitish Kumar, Chirag Paswan and Jayant Chaudhary to refrain from indulging in hate politics and keep saffron vigilantes and cadres under check. The UP government’s diktat to shop owners to name shop owners forced these leaders’ hands.

They have told Modi in no uncertain terms that that perpetuating such politics would prove costly for him. Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), Chirag Paswan’s LJP and RLD’s Jayant Chaudhary are dependent on Muslims for their political survival and they were not willing to sacrifice their future for Modi’s present. They are perplexed Modi hasn’t learned from the BJP defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.

The “three crutches” believe Amit Shah is to blame. Being Union Home Minister, he could have stopped the CM from playing around with the lives of citizens, instead he chose to keep mum. Is it coincidence that Yogi’s “actions” come just ahead of assembly elections in Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra and is tantamount to polarizing the Hindu votebank for electoral purposes? (IPA Service)