After image overhaul, Modi will have to keep RSS at bay

The process of re-branding Hindutva hardliner Narendra Modi has kicked off on the right note. He has been making the appropriate noises on unity, brotherhood and harmony prior to his three-day fast. He has also touched upon the subject of communalism, albeit in passing, saying it does no good to any society. He has not expressed regret over the communal riots of 2002 yet but there are hints in his second letter that he would go the extra mile to smoothen ruffled feathers to project an inclusive, acceptable image. The fast is just the beginning. A lot more is bound to follow. [caption id=“attachment_86260” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Narendra Modi with L K Advani lights a lamp at the beginning of his three-day ‘sadbhavna’ fast for peace and harmony. PTI”]  [/caption] The BJP appears gung ho. If there’s heartburn at the unstated projection of Modi as the prime ministerial candidate for 2014, it is not showing yet. There are bound to be unhappy souls in the top leadership but the party has no choice now. The BJP has been in acute leadership crisis since Atal Behari Vajpayee receded into the shadows. Most of it had to do with conflicting leadership ambitions. The party had to find a leader outside the Delhi circle. And the leader had to be backed by sufficient achievement, ability and personal appeal which could be marketed to the masses. Modi fit the bill well. His only problem was his image. It needed a big overhaul. He appeared too aggressive, too sectarian, too divisive and too Gujarat-centric – certainly not qualities associated with a national leader. The party and the person himself have started the process of change. In the two years before the general elections Modi could be an entirely different person. The image makeover and managing egos in the party, however, are smaller problems for Modi. His real challenge is managing the dynamics of the Sangh Parivar in general and the RSS in particular. The RSS, the mother organisation of the BJP and its ideological fountainhead, has been an overwhelming influence in the BJP’s scheme of things. It has been the party’s biggest strength as well as its biggest weakness. The image change basically means Modi will need to shed a whole lot of the RSS and its ideology in him. He is associated with the RSS and its ideas too strongly right now to be accepted without inhibition at the national level. It’s a long haul and it is not certainly as easy as it looks now. The equations between the party and the mother organisation are complex. Leaders such as LK Advani, who had to quit as party president after his eulogy for Jinnah in Karachi, and has since been on the sidelines, would vouch for that. What he was trying then was to come out of his Hindutva hawk image and build a pan-Indian persona on the lines of Vajpayee. The RSS did not take kindly to it. The RSS has been stepping in at critical moments in the party’s affairs to announce its ownership of the party. It has foisted lightweight leaders like Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari to lead the party. Most of the BJP leaders run to the organisation in times of crisis – former Karanataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa is a case in point. At the lower organisational level there’s a very thin line dividing the RSS shakhas and the BJP’s own organisation in terms of personnel and activities. The BJP is not too strong organisationally yet to assert its independence and chart its own course of action. It is one of the reasons the party has not grown fast. It’s a potential minefield for Modi out there. Shedding the RSS also means courting the prospect of losing its support. But he might take the risk. It is good for the BJP in the long run. He has been at loggerheads with the fringe Hindutva groups and some RSS members in Gujarat and cut them to size. The biggest advantage for Modi is his strong personality. Once he starts asserting himself the dissenters will fall in place. But it’s going to be an arduous task. The task has just begun for Modi.