The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership’s reaction to Mr. Nanaji Deshmukh’s appeal for support to Mr. Rajiv Gandhi is understandable. Coming as it does from a man with life-long connection with the RSS without the support of which the BJP will find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to fare well in the forthcoming election to the Lok Sabha, Mr. Deshmukh’s impassioned plea must embarrass the party leaders. But the issue is rather complicated. On the one hand, the BJP is formally not a political wing of the RSS as the Bharatiya Jana Sangh was at least to begin with; Mr. Deshmukh gave up active politics in 1980 and could, therefore, have spoken only in his private capacity; so whatever their reaction privately, the BJP leaders would have been well advised to keep quiet. On the other hand, Mr. Deshmukh should answer two questions for the benefit of those who respect him and are willing to listen to him. To whom is the appeal addressed? And what precisely does he want them to do?
In a sense, his answer is obvious. He can say that he has appealed to all Indians regardless of their “caste, creed, religion, language, region or political affiliation” to extend the “fullest sympathy and co-operation” to the new Prime Minister ‘in meeting the manifold challenges facing the country at the moment” and in filling the vacuum which Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination has created. But he cannot expect this call for an end to all partisan political activities and controversies to be heeded amidst an election campaign which is already on. As a seasoned politician he must know this to be the case. It is possible that he began drafting this plea before the Election Commission announced the dates for the polls and that he anticipated a postponement of the election. But the appeal has surfaced after election has been announced. In that context it can at best amount to a plea to keep the temperature down during the election campaign. It would, however, be a different matter if the appeal is addressed to the RSS and if Mr. Deshmukh wants it to support Mr. Rajiv Gandhi.
The RSS cadres have been rather “confused” in the past 18 months or so. There were reports at the time of the elections to the metropolitan council and municipal corporation in the Union territory of Delhi and the vidhan sabha in Jammu and Kashmir last year that a large number of them had not only not worked for the BJP candidates but had supported Congress candidates and that support accounted partly for the BJP’s poor performance in Delhi and its rout in Jammu, once its stronghold. Indeed, this “fact” was quoted by a number of leftists, including the general secretary of the CPI, Mr. Rajeswara Rao, to make the charge that Mrs. Gandhi was pursuing a set of policies which were designed to win her the Hindu vote and that she had not clinched a deal with the Akali Dal precisely for that reason. The charge was, of course, false. Mrs. Gandhi was not the kind of individual who would subordinate national interests to partisan ends. And the risk of alienating the Sikhs was too great for her to take light-heartedly. But if it is true that a large number of RSS cadres had moved, even if in their individual capacity, towards the Congress, subsequent developments, especially the martyrdom of Mrs. Gandhi, must logically strengthen that trend. Politics is not always logical. But seen from that perspective, Mr. Deshmukh’s appeal is logical. This is not to say that he sees things in that light. We just do not know whether he does or he does not. But it cannot be seriously disputed that his plea fits into a pattern which can be traced back to the elections in Delhi last summer.
The RSS leaders have for years contended that theirs is a cultural organisation and that they do not issue directives to their cadres in political matters and that the cadres are free to vote for whichever party they favour. The BJP leaders have never endorsed this proposition. Only recently Mr. LK Advani said that the ties between the BJP and the RSS are unbreakable. Most of us have tended to take Mr. Advani’s statement at its face value and treated the BJP as a political expression of the RSS. It is difficult to say whether we should review the position in view of Mr. Deshmukh’s appeal, but we cannot dismiss the possibility that Mr. Deshmukh has given expression to a sentiment which is fairly widespread among his former RSS associates and followers.