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Did the RSS tacitly back Congress in the Lok Sabha elections?
Sanjay Kapoor Delhi

A few days before the results of the Lok Sabha elections were announced, arrangements were made by the handlers of BJP's prime ministerial candidate, LK Advani, to have a big bash to celebrate the expected victory of the eternal PM-in-Waiting. This was reinforced substantially by an avalanche of support they got from the non-voting cyber-world, which they thought would be enough to help them form the government largely on their own.

When the results came out on May 16, the wide gap between the BJP's expectations and the outcome was clearly visible. The BJP fell short by 50-odd seats from their projections. Not only did the BJP strategist and number crunchers, but also pollsters and journalists went wrong in their failure to assess BJP's shoddy performance. Why did the BJP perform so abysmally?

In the sizeable torrent of words and letters that have been written since its historical loss by Sudheendra Kulkarni, Arun Jaitley, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha, among others, one can see a lot of finger-pointing but no genuine identification of the real cause that led to the party's discomfiture.

No one really mentioned the reasons why the traditional Hindu-minded upper caste supporters, who wanted a "government with a difference" led by tough leader LK Advani, chose to ignore the BJP and instead vote for the Congress. Kulkarni, whose best-laid plans - inspired by Barack Obama's iconic presidential campaign - to use web 2.0 to catapult Advani to power, came closest to hinting why the campaign flopped.

In his article, he alleged that Advani had not been given the same kind of support that Atal Behari Vajpayee had received from party men. Kulkarni pulled punches by not saying in so many words the truth that the BJP would find it difficult to reconcile with: The RSS not only did not back the BJP or Advani, but in many places allowed its followers to support the Congress. So, if the BJP or the pollsters got the poll outcome wrong, then it was due to the simple fact that their so-called "Hindu" voters did not vote for them.

RSS ideologue, MG Vaidya, writing in Tarun Bharat, on the contrary, did not mince words. He said that Advani did not enthuse the Hindu voters as he gave up the Hindutva agenda of constructing a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Article 370 and common civil code. Vaidya said categorically that the BJP should consider leading a life without the RSS if it was not interested in giving precedence to the RSS agenda.

Kulkarni, who swung from the CPM to the BJP in his illustrious career, also wanted the RSS to introspect. Facilitated by his close relations with the business house of Hindujas that wanted Advani, a fellow Sindhi, as the prime minister, Kulkarni was bitter as he failed in this objective. His earlier advice that led Advani to declare MA Jinnah as secular caused his estrangement with the RSS.

"RSS pursues a policy of active infiltration into secular parties when it feels that its objectives would be better met that way rather than supporting the BJP," claimed an RSS watcher. According to him, RSS had infiltrated the Congress and the Janata Dal in the past to ensure that their perception of Hindu interests was not hurt. RSS, as history would indicate, has always tried to earn legitimacy from the Congress. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel wanted a larger role for them. In the 1950s, the RSS had a contingent at the Republic Day parade. There are also reports that the RSS extended support to Indira Gandhi's government at different stages and managed such concessions as a ban on cow slaughter. Their support resulted in big victories for Indira Congress in Jammu and Madhya Pradesh in the early 1980s.