Some kind of astronomical and astrological and politico-logical calculations were done.
Sources say the announcement in BJP's new team of office bearers and the proposed mega reshuffle of the Modi cabinet may come anytime now. June 22 Monday was one sort of a deadline or a 'beginning line'.
There is a guessing game that around 30-35 per cent of the existing leadership is expected to remain in place. But steps will be taken to bring several leaders currently active at the state level and even district level directly into national politics.
"We do not ignore the fact that 12 year is often a big time space in politics. A man who was 60 in 2014 is now 72.... this obvious fact is into consideration. Similarly, a 20-year-young BJP karyakarta is now 32 and can take any major responsibility," says an informed source.
Other dynamics are also involved. The NDA as a coalition has grown into multiple shapes and forms in the last 12 years. Moreover, more changes are happening too. The sudden supply of MPs in both the Houses at the cost of nearly fatal-end of regional satraps such as Uddhav Thackeray and Mamata Banerjee will also have to be scrutinised closely.
The government's priority is a few legislative agenda and that include women quota and the Delimitation Exercise. The entire nation's political landscape and sociial-equations related to these will change in the next few months if not earlier.
Reports suggest, possible names have already been discussed with Organisation General Secretary B L Santhosh and other senior party functionaries including the likes of Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh. PM Narendra Modi is himself monitoring things.
The RSS factor is also being weighed in. The BJP will still require foot soldiers from the Sanghparivar.
In July 2024, the Modi government (3.0) lifted a 58-year-old ban that restricted government employees from participating in RSS activities, allowing closer ties between the bureaucracy and the organisation.
Among the women, those being considered are Kamaljeet Sehrawat (Delhi), Kangana Ranaut (Himachal Pradesh), Vanathi Srinivasan (National President of Mahila Morcha), Smriti Irani (former Women and Child Development Minister), Sandhya Ray (Madhya Pradesh), Mahima Kumari Mewar (Rajasthan) and Locket Chatterjee (West Bengal).
Some key figures currently in the government may be assigned responsibilities within the organisation. Should PM Modi also touch key portfolio like Finance vis-a-vis Nirmala Sitharaman or External Affairs Minister like Dr S Jaishankar remain to be seen.
More than half of new office-bearers could be below 50, reflecting the party’s push to promote younger leadership. In the past a number of RSS leaders were made Governors across India.
P B Acharya, La Ganesan in Nagaland.
In January 2017, V. Shanmuganathan, the then-Governor of Meghalaya and a veteran RSS activist, had resigned following serious allegations of misconduct.
Others in the list included:
Haribhau Kisanrao Bagde: Appointed Governor of Rajasthan. Gulab Chand Kataria - Governor of Assam (later shifted to Punjab).
O P Mathur - Appointed Governor of Sikkim.
Ramen Deka from Assam - appointed Governor of Chhattisgarh.
Jishnu Dev Varma: Former Deputy CM of Tripura, appointed Governor of Telangana.
C.P. Radhakrishnan: From Tamil Nadu made Jharkhand Governor. Later shifted to Maharashtra and is now Vice President of India.
New Nagaland Governor Nand Kishore Yadav also has RSS association. Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also has Sangh background and was Haryana chief minister for 10 years.
For records : Key Union Ministers with RSS Backgrounds
Narendra Modi - Prime Minister, Others -- Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, J P Nadda, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Bhupender Yadav and Dharmendra Pradhan.
Should Modi oblige the protesters and change his Education Minister?
Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, has strong roots in the RSS. His father, Gangadharrao Fadnavis, was a prominent pracharak.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s intellectual inputs are always valuable.
Mohan Bhagwat and his team were engaged in different formats.
In one such meeting around 2018-19; Bhagwat reportedly said – “Human beings are always at different stages of evolution … hence all of us belong to the same species and same nationhood of Hinduness must be stressed”.
All these remarks made more relevance once 2024 election results came in.
For Maharashtra and Haryana state elections; all differences between BJP and RSS and other wings such as Bajrang Dal were forgotten.
The ‘united’ efforts and good coordination between BJP and RSS leaders and key government functionaries both in the centre and the state levels yielded good dividends.
The Haryana-Maharashtra model was adopted for the Delhi assembly election too. And in West Bengal, such a historic success is not possible without effective coordination.
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Even day-to-day issues like Delhi’s pollution, Yamuna cleanliness, family values and corruption were discussed. Over 400,000 (4 lakh) people reportedly attended the RSS drawing room meetings across Delhi. At one point such small gathering numbers went up to 50,000 in the run-up to voting day.
The essence of Good Governance is linked to politics and powerplay.
By that logic all governance projects and schemes should actually ensure that the fruits of development reach ‘Daridranarayan’ - the faceless common and poor Indian – as believed by RSS ideologues.
An organic chemistry between various governmental wings and the RSS-backed organisations and the Sanghpaivar fountainhead is minimum expectation.
In a meeting in 2014 (within months Narendra Modi was PM); HRD Minister Smriti Irani was told by Suresh Soni and a few other RSS ideologues that the ideology hold must be strengthened on the BJP and crucial government departments.
It was argued the “Congress suffered” immensely in terms of people's perception and a party’s value system and principles because - it was influenced and guided by ministers.
Under Modi, hence it was a deliberate decision that the BJP and RSS should continue to “guide” the ministers and even prescribe “Dos and Don’ts” for critical ministries.
The decision to frame a New Education Policy (NEP) was taken long back around 2014 itself. And after many twists and turns today the NEP bears the clear imprint of of the RSS ideology or Hindutva punctuated cleverly with adjectives around ancient civilizational values and neo nationalism.
PM himself had made it clear that his vision on ‘New India’ will be around Uniform Civil Code, emphasis on Patriotism, Cultural Unity and moral roots.
Insiders say all throughout despite blow-hot and blow-cold time ‘problems’ between Nagpur and BJP on who will be next BJP president – all these critical meetings went on unhindered. “We are committed to Nation First … so small issues do not matter," is the refrain from key BJP ministers – who have been with the RSS and the BJP lifelong.
It was also decided that necessary ground would have to be done by “reworking in school textbooks and higher education syllabi” to suit the anti-Muslim slant.
Reportedly, the then Finance Minister Late Arun Jaitley was tasked to ‘evolve’ mechanism under which –
Financial support was to be extended by the government (s) – Central and states – to the RSS-inspired organisations. This included sponsoring workshops and seminars. (Many say a few experts with Left wing experience were also approached for their inputs.)
Old timers reveal that there are over 30 RSS-inspired organisations that are formally recognized by Nagpur.
West Bengal and Tripura reportedly figured prominently around 2016-17 especially after West Bengal elections of 2016 when Mamata returned to power.
The timing was important as Tripura went to polls in early 2018 and as an experiment few ‘time-tested’ RSS hands were deputed to work in Tripura.
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| Blogger and former Nagaland Governor La Ganesan (ex RSS leader from Tamil Nadu) |
The ‘Chalo Paltai’ slogan was reportedly mooted first by a retired government official and the BJP realised later that the move would pay them dividends. The Marxists were defeated in Tripura in 2018.
Around that time, Amit Shah was asked by ‘karyakartas’ once whether Bengali mindset has been changed as people in Tripura voted overwhelmingly for the BJP shunning their earlier intellectual trappings.
Shah’s response: “This is half-truth… Bengali Hindus in Tripura were victims of Partition once and hence naturally they could come to the BJP".
This was not the case with West Bengal where communists and Islamic influence were far old and far stronger.
ends
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