Beyond Gadkari: To grow up, BJP must cut off RSS apron-strings

In all but the crudest calorific sense, Nitin Gadkari is a lightweight whose political worthiness and heft is unfathomable to anyone beyond the closed circle of RSS functionaries who exercise a disproportionately high influence on the political affairs of the BJP.  Long after it became abundantly clear that Gadkari’s continuance as BJP president was hobbling the party from making political capital out of the numerous corruption scandals that wrack the UPA government, the RSS, the mothership that guides the BJP  ideology, recklessly insisted on  on Gadkari’s re-election - virtually twisting the arms of senior BJP leaders  and forcing them into submission. And it very nearly had its way - until, barely a day before the “re-election”, the income-tax raids on Gadkari’s business empire torpedoed that plan. The dramatic turn of events on Tuesday,  when Gadkari was finally eased out to make way for Rajnath Singh to take over as president, holds important lessons for the BJP as well as the RSS. Although the RSS has implanted another of its ‘front men’ - in the form of Rajnath Singh - as BJP president, the circumstances under which it had to let go of its preferred candidate - Nitin Gadkari - count as a serious loss of face for the Sangh fountainhead. For the past few months, it had the option of managing the transition from Gadkari on its terms. But in the end, it had to yield, in the face of a virtual revolt from the senior BJP leadership - and the manifestly politically motivated income tax raids on Gadkari’s companies. In the end, it had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the transition, not on its terms and not at a time of its choosing. [caption id=“attachment_556173” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  For the lotus to bloom, it needs the oxygen of independence from the RSS.Reuters[/caption] By clinging onto Gadkari and insisting on foisting him on the BJP, despite the clamour from within the BJP rank-and-file and from the rest of the leadership (including from LK Advani), the RSS had effectively enfeebled and emasculated the BJP, merely in order for it to be  able to impose its ‘‘maternal’’’ diktat on its political progeny. That the RSS leadership insisted on such a course for so long, wilfully blind to the overall political ramifications of the decision, shows up the RSS as being either either politically illiterate  - or, more likely, as being insensitive to the BJP’s need to define its self-identity on its own terms. Like an aged, control-freak matriarch who insists that her grown-up son stay at home and carry out his filial duties, forgoing career opportunities in the world outside that he yearns for, the RSS has clipped the BJP ’s wings and has it wrapped around its little finger.  It has held back the party from realising its potential and shaping its own destiny, even if it means making mistakes that it can learn from. For the BJP too, the events of recent months, culminating in the political denouement on Tuesday, show up the merit of breaking free of the maternal apron-strings that bind it to the RSS bosom - and of redefining its relationship with its mothership. For a party that denounces and mocks the Congress’ inability - or unwillingness - to outgrow the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, the BJP comes across as equally wussy whenever it has to face up to the RSS. For far too long has it allowed the RSS to dictate and define its patriarchal worldview, which - truth be told - is regressive for the most part and out of synch with  modern, urban young India. However much we may love our parents, there comes a time when - in the interest of our shaping our own identity and realising our potential - we must take a stand and, if necessary,  persuade them to change their backward-looking worldview and move with the times. By surrendering too readily to the RSS at every turn, the BJP only comes across as a “mamma’s boy” who can’t think for himself. As Tuesday’s events show, the RSS can, under compelling circumstances, be forced to yield ground. In fact, the BJP would have embellished its democratic credentials if it had actually gone ahead with an open contest for the presidency, instead of persuading Yashwant Sinha and Mahesh Jethmalani to back off in the interest of party unity, and allowing the RSS to impose Rajnath Singh on the leadership. In a larger sense, the BJP must realise that just as there comes an optimal time when every young adult must leave his maternal home and find a future for himself  and redefine his relationship with his parents in a manner that goes beyond traditional notions of filial piety, the party too must break free of the umbilical cord that binds it to its cloying RSS mother. As Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who started life as a ~sarsanghchalak~  pracharak but has outgrown its influence, has demonstrated, there is a life to be realised outside of one’s ancestral home. In fact, leaving one’s home is an important rite of passage in one’s passage into adulthood. For the BJP to truly grow up, it must seize the moment and cut off the maternal apron-strings that tie it too closely to the  RSS and inhibit it from realising its potential.