Time to wake up - An Introspection

The Right Hindu


The BJP seems to be following the Silence is Golden rule when it comes to speaking of the elections that just got over. The whole world has seen the defeat and analyzed the causes and plenty of articles of the defeat and its various reasons have been published. But no one seems to be talking about what next to do. Advaniji is back heading the BJP and the NDA. All respect to his age, I think its time to retire and pass on the mantle to the younger leaders. No prizes for NOT guessing who it could have been ! Everyone is keen to suggest on the BJP restructuring its leadership and the RSS strengthening its hold or relaxing its hold ( if it had any ).

From a layman's experience of many ground realities, which unfortunately the people who need to control these seem to be missing, a few urgent mends needs to be made.
There seems to be too many Parivar organizations coming into existence daily.The functionaries of these Parivar activities relating to Seva activities or labour unions and others seem to be the same Sangh activists over and over again. Its like having too many pots and just two hands !! When you give a human being too many tasks he tends to prioritize his activities. When a sangh activist is involved in the day to day function of the sangh shakha and Parivar activities and in between this he is asked to become a functionary of the local Seva Kendra or the temple committee, he needs to prioritize. And when he does that, as a human being he will naturally opt for the least tiresome and economical of the lot. This leads to reduced number in shakhas. And when man tastes the fruits of his work in the form of money, he further alienates himself from the qualities of the Swayamsevak. We have always maintained that the Swayamsevak must bring in his qualities into all walks of life he is associated with. There just seems to be too much money involved in all the Sangh's activities.



We have come a long way from the day Dr. Hedgewar refused to accept money for the organizations running to how we run our sangh Parivar today. In Kerala, there are collections going on amounting to crores of rupees to build offices in almost every corner of the state. On one hand we have to agree its a great leap from the days we struggled to have a building of our own. But does it help to create empty concrete structures and be totally disconnected from the people and the ideology. Why do we need to have our senior Pracharaks running around and asking people to pay up for these excesses? The once respected full timers of the Sangh who spend their energy and time in revitalizing the cadre and organizing the working structure of the organization now-a-days paint a scary picture akin to that of the bill collectors!! Also a change in the pattern in the shakhas to attract more numbers is fine. But to introduce games like volley ball in the morning and night shakhas seem to very desperate. We can have that in the evening shakhas meant for college students and school children. We don’t need to dilute our time tested techniques to such an extent that it defies the purpose of having the shakha in the first place.



The slowing down of the Sangh and the slight degradation of its working values seem to be directly linked to the growth of the political organization of the Parivar, the BJP in the 90s . Many would find it hard to disagree, but the some of the RSS cadre got a sense of freedom from the hard work the Swayamsevak needs to put up with in the day to day life in the sangh. Without realizing the immortal fruits of the hard work, many RSS people were and are attracted to the BJP. A false sense of hope that a political victory could somehow get them closer to the Param Vaibhavam of the Hindu society and thereby, of India. In the course of a debate someone once pointed out to me, that if you do scrutinize the group fights and the corruption within the BJP, you would find many of these were or are from the RSS cadre. The truth definitely shocks you out of your senses.

I think the most important thing the BJP needs to do before it goes out to the masses is a self study of its aims and objectives from an ideological perspective rather from simply a political outlook. The RSS cadre and the BJP cadre needs two different kind of treatment and must not be allowed to mix.

The BJP needs to seriously think on adopting the RSS technique of starting shakhas all over the country. The BJP unit in each ward, village, corporation, jilla, state must be a shakha unit. It must meet once every day or week to study its ideology and plan its strategies. The shakha must conduct regular contact programmes to the houses in its localities to educate the masses of its policies. This must be done on a daily basis. This should be done by the BJP cadre. The RSS cadre has its own issues and programmes to tackle. The BJP needs to be on an election mood for the next five years. Every issue that happens needs to be effectively relayed down to the shakha and onto the electorate with the BJP's clear cut view on the issue and what it intends to do about it. Three important things will happen from this

1. The ruling party will be on its toes to make sure no lapse happens with which the BJP can attack it

2. The BJP leaders will on their toes lest their cadre catches them sleeping

3. The cadre who joined the party for time pass will quietly walk away and the committed ones will remain to serve the cause of the political ideology.

The society and the Sangh need to mix like sugar mixes with milk to make it sweet. That’s the only way we can reach our Param Vaibhav, for which we pray to achieve every day.