Modi, Shah, RSS to walk together

One is an offspring of the other, and yet the formal ties between the BJP and the RSS can be interesting to watch, although not necessarily instructive at all times, for the two are likely to be in lock-step after the BJP recently emerged with a majority of its own in Parliament for the first time since Independence.

Just a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised his Man Friday Amit Shah — at the BJP’s national council and national executive on Saturday — as the “man of the match” of the recent Lok Sabha polls, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said in Bhubaneswar that no single leader or party could claim credit for the BJP’s grand win in the election, for it was the people of the country who desired a change of government and ensured that they got it.

Truth to tell, the RSS has not been averse to the cult of personality, as its own veneration of some of its past greats is proof. What Hindutva’s mother body looks keen to guard against, however, is the exaltation of leaders from the BJP or any of the other front organisations spawned by it. But there can be no question that Mr Modi and Mr Shah have appeared as a powerful twosome who are in a position, at least for now, to bend the BJP to its will.

Essentially, both the PM and the BJP chief sought to prepare their party machine for the crucial poll battle ahead — 10 Assembly byelections in Bihar later this month, 12 Assembly byelections in UP, and polls to the state Assemblies of Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir. Mr Shah in particular was emphatic on this score, renewing the call given by Mr Modi in the Lok Sabha poll campaign for a “Congress-mukt Bharat”, or an India rid of the Congress party.

This effort has necessarily taken on a campaign of political polarisation on the BJP’s part, especially in UP, where the saffron party would like to be in the driver’s seat when state polls become due in two years’ time. In retaliation, the SP and the BSP are also trying to protect their turf and communal clashes on trivial issues are breaking out, especially in western UP.

In recent byelections for three Assembly seats in Uttarakhand, BJP candidates were defeated by big margins. This has naturally caused concern in the party. With Mr Shah at the wheel, the BJP may be expected to step up the tempo in the clear knowledge that reinforcement of the Lok Sabha result in the upcoming trial of strength will embed the Modi government at the Centre while an indifferent showing can cause trouble for the Modi-Shah axis in the party.