But for the intervention of this ‘cultural organisation’ to which the BJP leaders pay an annual gurudakshina or tuition fee for keeping them on the right ideological path, it would not have been possible for Rajnath Singh – the RSS’s nominee for the BJP president’s post – to overcome the resistance offered by L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj and anoint Modi.

The mental block of Advani and others about the Gujarat strong man still remains. But, their numbers must be rapidly dwindling because of the cheers which Modi is attracting at his rallies. All this must be heart-warming for the RSS because Modi’s elevation is its first political success.

Otherwise, till now, the BJP’s purported friend, philosopher and guide had to take a back seat as moderates like Atal Behari Vajpayee took charge of the steering wheel. As a result, all that the Nagpur Grand Dragons – to use a term associated with the Ku Klux Klan – could do was to stop Vajpayee from appointing Jaswant Singh as the finance minister in 1998.

Moreover, in view of the fact that Vajpayee and Co paid little attention to the RSS’s core concern of taking India towards being a Hindu rashtra, of which the first step would be to build the Ram temple, the sarsanghchalaks could not but be a disaffected group. Their authority was limited to dragging Advani kicking and screaming from the BJP president’s post in 2005 for praising Mohammed Ali Jinnah. For the same act of misdemeanour, Jaswant Singh, too, was booted out the party in 2009. He was readmitted in the following year.

But, all this was small recompense for the RSS since its goal of realising Hegdewar’s and Golwalkar’s dream of converting India from a multicultural and multi-religious country into a nation of, by and for Hindus remained unfulfilled. Not only did Vajpayee let it down, which was not unexpected since he was always known as a moderate – the right man in the wrong party – but Advani, the fiery rath yatri of the 1990s, also disappointed the Nagpur bosses by trying to imitate Vajpayee moderation.

Following all these setbacks for its not-too-secret ambitions, the RSS evidently reposed much faith in Modi after an initial period of hesitation when it was unsure about backing a man noted for his arrogant individualism. If it finally chose him, the reason was that there was no one else who could energize the crowds like him.

What is more, Modi is lauded not because of his development agenda – although that is projected as his USP – but because he is perceived as a no-nonsense leader who scares the living daylights out of Muslims. For the RSS, this is his plus point. It also makes him hugely popular with the so-called Internet Hindus known for their abusive diatribes against the Congress and Muslims.

But, is Modi still in the good books of the RSS? Is the paterfamilias wondering whether the unavoidable electoral compulsions of a pluralistic country are forcing Modi to don the mask of moderation a la Vajpayee? The head of the Sangh parivar cannot but have noted that Modi has maintained a deafening silence on the temple issue, described as ‘non-negotiable’ by Murli Manohar Joshi, who is in charge of drafting the BJP’s election manifesto.

Although Modi’s elevation apparently persuaded the VHP to up the ante on the issue by threatening to take out processions, the Hindutva mascot himself did not say a word on the subject while addressing a rally in Kanpur. While his silence on the Muzaffarnagar riots is understandable since communal violence tends to revive memories of his suspected complicity in the Gujarat riots of 2002, the reason why he should avoid the temple issue is unclear unless it is a deliberate ploy to woo Muslims.

That he has been trying to placate Muslims has been clear from the distribution of burqas for women and skull caps for men although he himself refused to wear one during his sadbhavna meetings. However, his obvious intention is to spread the message via pictures on the media of Muslims at his meetings that the minorities are not scared of him.

But, how does the RSS look upon this effort to reach out to a community whose members were once cuttingly described as Babur ki aulad (children of the invader Babur)? A hint of the views of the Nagpur bosses can be obtained from the approving comments of the RSS on Rahul Gandhi’s statement that the ISI has been in touch with the Muslim victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots.

While Modi has described the observation as a slur on Muslims, the RSS has said that Rahul is right ‘to an extent’. Aren’t the Hindu hriday samrat and the head of the Hindutva camp no longer on the same page? (IPA Service)