Left to its own devices, the parivar would have loved to extol its own heroes such as Godse, Golwalkar and Savarkar. Indeed, in moments of candour, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin has indeed been praised by some of the BJP parliamentarians like SakshiMaharaj and SadhviPragya before they were pulled up by their seniors who know that the time is not yet ripe for such frankness.

For that, the saffron camp will have to wait for the formal establishment of a Hindu rashtra. For the time being, it will be preferable to tread carefully on the ideological front when the scales are still tilted in favour of a multicultural “idea” of India where propagating Savarkar’s vision of a country which is inhabited by “two antagonistic nations living side by side” is not politically advisable. Incidentally, Savarkar expressed this view in 1927, three years before the Muslim League endorsed Jinnah’s two-nation theory in Lahore.

Given the need, therefore, to shy away – at least for the present – from what the BJP’s own stalwarts have said so as not to let the cat out of the bag and thereby alienate those Hindus who still retain their faith – mistakenly in the parivar’s view – in an inclusive society, the BJP has found it politically safe to adopt the larger- than-life figures who were associated with the Congress such as Bose and Vallabhbhai Patel.

It is unclear to what extent these poaching expeditions will be successful in the electoral field. All that can be said is that they give the BJP a talking point which the orators in its ranks can use. It also gives the party an entry into the politics and society of a targeted province. For instance, it now expects that the espousal of Bose will endear the party to Bengalis on the eve of the assembly elections in West Bengal.

Again, the efficacy of this tactic is unclear and can carry the danger of pitfalls as a BJP leader’s erroneous reference to Rabindranath Tagore’s birthplace showed. India is too large and too diverse for politicians of one state to imbibe the cultural history of another although Wikipedia is a handy tool in this respect. But a google-based political campaign would have seemed laughable to the well-read public figures of an earlier generation.

It is not only political icons who are sought to be (mis)appropriated by the BJP. The party also quotes the savants of various provinces even if their views are diametrically opposed to those of Golwalkar who wanted the Muslims to live as second class citizens, “wholly subservient to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment … not even citizen’s rights”

In contrast to such venom, the philosophers or sages or politicians of high stature whom the BJP demagogues like to quote invariably subscribe to the ideals of amity and brotherhood.

These are completely unlike the views of organizations like the RSS, Hindu Mahasabha and the Jan Sangh-BJP which thrive on divisiveness. It can be argued, therefore, that the centuries of social and cultural streams of India militate against the parochial, Hindu-centric outlook of the RSS and other Right-wing outfits.

It is obvious that in trying to usurp the icons of the non-Rightist organizations, the BJP is swimming against the tide of the nation’s inherent mindset. The fallout of this endeavour will only be known later. But what can be asked at present is the impact of the enlightened views of these great personalities on the BJP.

Will they modify the party’s chauvinism and make it less intolerant towards the minorities? Is such a transition from the right of the ideological spectrum to the centre possible or is it all a chimera intended only for the sake of winning elections?

In all the 95 years of the RSS, the pro-Hindu organization has shown no inclination to rethink its position. Now that its political arm, the BJP, has attained sufficient power to steer the country’s course towards the goal of a Hindu rashtra, will the RSS allow it adopt a whole set of opinions which has nothing to do with the sectarian worldview of the organization’s founding fathers ? Or, is the RSS aware that it is all a ruse and need not be taken seriously?

And what of the BJP’s rank and file, especially the extremists among them like Union minister Giriraj Singh and parliamentarian Tejashvi Surya, to name only two? Will they pay heed to Modi’s recent call to abide by Telugu poet GurajadaApparao’s observations who said “what if our religions differ, if one is human our hearts unite”? (IPA Service)