Conscious of his being the public face of the Sangha Parivar, Modi took to asserting his whim and in the process he turned leadership structure irrelevant and smashed the hierarchy. The situation has come to such a stage that even senior BJP leaders, like Rajnath Singh, do not muster courage to look straight into Modi’s eyes and call a spade a spade. The entire leadership edifice has been relegated to the status of court jesters. Modi’s diktat has become the political and ideological line of the party.

After election campaigning was launched in Karnataka, Modi had announced that the veteran B S Yediyurappa would lead the BJP army. But within 48 hours of the announcement, Modi made a U-turn and took the command of the brigade. If the party insiders were to be believed, Amit Shah was against projecting Yediyurappa as the leader and counselled Modi to take command. Eventually BJP fought the election on the name and image of Modi.

Modi’s sense of supreme confidence had made him ride over the wishes of regional leaders. The regional leaders could not contribute to the party functioning in a more positive and constructive manner. The situation might not have deteriorated to such an extent if the RSS had intervened earlier, precisely when the RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale had questioned the functioning of Modi and the nature of his governance.

Through the latest Organiser editorial, RSS has virtually censored Modi. It rejected his claim of being the super leader by observing that BJP needs strong regional leadership and effective delivery at the regional level. “Without strong leadership and effective delivery at the regional level, PM Modi's charisma and Hindutva as ideological glue would not be sufficient,” the magazine stated.

If Modi is responsible for decline of the party, the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat should share the blame for creation of this situation. He did not give credence to the dissenting voices against Modi. He was not at all willing to subscribe to the views that RSS’s Politics of Hindutva has lost its relevance and appeal. He never questioned the functioning and approach of Modi. He refused to condemn incidents of lynchings of Muslims, spreading the venom of love jihad and torturing the minorities.

The defeat of the BJP in the Karnataka assembly election does not simply underline the erosion of Modi’s charisma and popularity, it bluntly questions the relevance and equanimity of RSS’s “Politics of Hindutva”. RSS chief ought to have told Modi, on his face, that theatrics is not the mechanism to govern a country like India. It needs some in-depth knowledge of the ground realities and political economy of the country.

Bhagwat in his quest to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra, provided patronage to every action of Modi which hurt the psyche of the country and its people. Till it was sure that that the slogan of Bajrang Bali will fetch votes, RSS did not object to Modi using it in Karnataka. But now it is rueing. Sad enough RSS’s scheme to win over the Dalits and Scheduled Tribes by using the name of Bajrang Bali also did not fructify. BJP did not win a single seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) category. Karnataka has 51 reserved constituencies, out of which 36 are for Scheduled Castes (SC) candidates and 15 for ST candidates.

RSS sources confide that the Sangh leadership was vertically split on the issue of allowing Modi to diktat. A year back the RSS general secretary Hosabale had dropped enough hint of differences that plagued the RSS on extending support to Modi. During its national executive meeting in Samalkha, Panipat district of Haryana from March 12 to 14, this issue had featured prominently. But the top leadership did not allow to take decisive step. It was only after the rout of the BJP in Karnataka the realisation dawned for initiating some action else the BJP faces the threat of marginalization.

The Organiser editorial simply reinforces the belief that Hindutva has never been an ideology. It has been simply an electoral tool for RSS and Modi with the avowed aim to get the Hindu votes on the pretext of practising a modernised version of Hinduism. Nevertheless, an analysis of the characterisation of the word as a religious tool would make it explicit that it manifests the class character of the RSS and BJP.

It is not that the Dalits, ST and SC of Karnataka did not have any idea of this class composition. The myth of Hindutva has been exposed. Basically, this has been the reason that they decisively voted against BJP. They registered their protest to this form of class politics of BJP and RSS. True enough Muslims could also see through Modi’s game. They refused to fall into the trap of Modi and Bhagwat. The Muslims have already been the victims of the politics of hatred and communal divisiveness. They have not forgotten the humiliation and insult inflicted on them by the BJP leaders in the recent past on the issue of the Hijab.

It is apparent that RSS has also turned election-oriented organisation. Like Modi its priority has shifted from social and cultural regeneration to strive for capturing power. This also manifests that absurdity of its claim that it works for strengthening the cultural ethos. Had it been true, it did not need an electoral victory as crutch to survive. The compulsion to remain in power made the RSS and BJP use the Hindutva as an electoral tool. Obviously to accomplish their mission they had to abandon Muslims. For them, the consolidation of Hindus was a sure passport to continue in power forever.

Till the Karnataka election, RSS and Modi were sure that this would work wonders in the elections in the other five states. But the defeat the party met with has raised the big question in BJP and RSS whether Modi’s core Hindutva nationalist agenda will be endorsed by the voters of these states. In fact, the leadership, especially Modi, may worry about the future of Hindutva for the 2024 elections.

The RSS leaders have come to realise that it was the denunciation of their Hindutva politics by the Hindu voters has forced them to think of certain modifications in the character of the strategy. They have turned scared of the growing popularity of Rahul and his setting the counter narrative to their line of politics of hated and divisiveness what Rahul describes as the victory of truth. There is o denying the fact that a vibrant Congress would pose a serious challenge to the concept of the centrality of Modi’s power. The myth that Modi is a superman has been exposed. The people of India have come to know of the reality of the Pulwama massacre and subsequent the role of the slogan Indian nationalism, to the victory of the BJP in 2019. Emergence of Rahul Gandhi as a national leader will give a body blow to the RSS and BJP.

It is worth mentioning that while Modi was moving whirlwind with his Hindutva slogan, a section of the state BJP leaders were sceptical of the feasibility of it in arousing the passion of the Hindu voters. Leaders like B S Yediyurappa had come to feel that Hindu voters were not too keen to respond to his Hindutva push. In places where he played the victim card and projected his Hindutva politics, the people did not appear to be quite enthusiastic to respond. RSS should have taken it as an alarm signal. It could have realised that people are concerned of lack of jobs, economic slowdown and other issues raised by Priyanka Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi. The Organiser editorial is a clear signal that the BJP is set to rebrand its strategy focusing more on the welfare schemes and depending on strong state leaders to face the combined opposition onslaught in the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. (IPA Service)