In the existing stalemate between the BJP’s top leadership and a group of four elder leaders who issued a damning indictment after the electoral rout in Bihar, one of the dissenting elders, former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, will be travelling to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Nagpur on 27 and 28 of this month.
While Dr. Joshi’s visit is ostensibly to deliver a lecture at the RSS’ vishesh shiksha varg (a training programme on RSS ideology for pracharaks) on integral humanism and Indian philosophy, speculation is rife that there is more to it.
“There is a stalemate in the situation owing to the fact that the elders and those in the party who are supporting the current Amit Shah dispensation are waiting for the big two, the RSS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to weigh in on the matter,” said a source. Dr. Joshi, former Deputy PM L.K. Advani and former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Shanta Kumar had issued a statement accusing the current leadership of “emasculating” the organisation.
“Mr. Advani’s endorsement of the Modi government in Gujarat on Sunday can be seen as a strategic retreat at the most,” said the source.
A top source in the RSS said the Sangh had not yet decided what must be done in the situation, apart from talking to the elders about the issues they highlighted since nobody very senior in the party had volunteered to do so. Even those who are uncomfortable with the current party president Amit Shah feel that calling him on his record of electoral success or failure was not the way to go about it. “After all, haven’t we lost elections under both Advaniji and Joshiji,” said a source.
“The usual candidate in this situation is Home Minister Rajnath Singh, but he and the other favourite intermediary in the party, Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, went off on tours without reaching out to the elders,” said the source. “A seniority situation also arose. Who could be senior enough to talk to the seniors?”
“RSS second in command Suresh “bhaiyyaji” Joshi would most likely step in. However, things would still be uncertain till the Prime Minister returns from his tour,” said a senior source in the party. RSS sources say that neither Mohan Bhagwat, the sarsanghchalak of the RSS, nor Mr. Suresh Joshi will be in Nagpur during Dr. Joshi’s visit. “But they could drop in” if the situation warranted it.
