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The Rediff Interview/K N Govindacharya

'A difference of opinion from the RSS does not mean that the Vajpayee government is in danger'

T en months after he took over the reins of the country, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has realised that his problems are not really with his disparate coalition partners. Often, disenchanted with Vajpayee and his policies, the Sangh Parivar and the hardliners in the Bharatiya Janata Party have openly questioned and criticised him.

Embarrassed by this public opposition to his government's policies and programmes from within the Sangh family, Vajpayee finally decided to do some plain talking at the just-concluded national executive of the BJP in Bangalore.

The prime minister, in no uncertain terms, made it very clear to the hardliners in the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leadership the governance of the country cannot be dictated by them and the coalition's policies and decisions are not meant be criticised and torpedoed by them.

Many in the party believe that Vajpayee's outbursts against the Sangh Parivar, especially on the economic front, and the attacks against Christians in Gujarat have temporarily reined in the hard-liners. But many expect that sooner than later, the war of words between Vajpayee and the Sangh Parivar could break out.

One of those powerful BJP leaders who is trying to drive a wedge between the Vajpayee government and the Sangh Parivar is the party general secretary K N Govindacharya. In an exclusive interview to George Iype, Govindacharya speaks out the relationship between the BJP and the RSS and the difficulties of running a coalition government. An excerpt:

Prime Minister Vajpayee has been has been under fire from the Sangh Parivar on a host of issues like insurance, the minority policy etc. Why is that the RSS and the hardliners in the party are not allowing the prime minister to govern the country the way he wants?

There are bound to be differences on many issues between the government and the party because it is not a BJP government at the Centre. It is a BJP-led coalition government. But there has been no difference among anyone on the commitment of the government and the party on Swadeshi.

As far as governance is concerned, the burden we inherited from the earlier government was so colossal that we are now trying to find ways and means to manage the country better. How to put the economy back on the rails is our utmost concern. But it is a complete exaggeration to state that the prime minister has not been able to run the country as he wishes.

Do you agree with BJP president Kushabhau Thakre's statement that the BJP is a captive of coalition politics and the Vajpayee government is acting under coalition compulsions?

I agree that there are real constraints in being part of a coalition government. But these constraints and compulsions are quite natural. When we decided to enter the coalition, we knew that we would be working under these limitations. Therefore, we are not regretful about it. But constraints do not mean that we are not solving the problems and going ahead. We are trying to steer the government through the right path despite these limitations.

But the government has been unable to keep to the various Hindutva causes like scrapping Article 370, enactment of a uniform civil code and the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya.

These are issues, which we decided that would not be included in the government's programme. We still stand by these Hindutva causes as far as our party policies are concerned. But the Vajpayee government is not now concerned about these issues because BJP is part of a coalition. I would say that the government cannot take up these issues because we are bound only by the national agenda of governance.

Isn't it the RSS unhappy that the BJP government is unable to implement its ideologies and the Hindutva causes?

No. I don't think so. I think the RSS leadership also agrees that the present government cannot take up these issues at this juncture. But it does not mean that we are abandoning our ideology and policies. We will pursue them the day the BJP comes to power on its own at the Centre.

But why is that the RSS and its organisations are often making accusations and voicing public criticism against the government?

The RSS never said publicly that it is dissatisfied with the Vajpayee government. But they have made assessments of the situation in the country which may seem critical of the government. There is nothing wrong in that. RSS and other organisations are eligible to assess the performance of the government as any other organisations are. But a difference of opinion from the RSS does not mean that the Vajpayee government is in danger. Why should the RSS be tied up with the constraints of coalition politics which the BJP is suffering from?

Because the BJP is very much part of the RSS and the dissatisfaction at the RSS end can affect its government...

No. The BJP is not part of the RSS.

But the BJP is the political wing of the RSS.

The BJP is not the political wing of the RSS. There is a symbiotic relationship between the RSS and the BJP. Our ideological moorings are deeply rooted in the RSS. But functionally the RSS and the BJP are two different autonomous organisations in three aspects: on policy formulation and decision making, organisational finances and the leadership responsibilities. Each organisation works on its own with a spirit of independence. However, a spirit of cooperation exists between the RSS and the BJP because national interest is the ultimate goal of the both the organisations.

You mean to say that the Vajpayee government need not listen to whatever the Sangh Parivar says and demands?

The Vajpayee government has never been listening and functioning according to RSS rules. The autonomy of the BJP and the Vajpayee government is being respected by the RSS.

But the public perception is that Prime Minister Vajpayee is chained by the Sangh Parivar and he has been fighting with the RSS leadership when it came to taking major policy decisions?

Detractors may be imagining all these things on their own. We are not duty-bound to explain to everyone how Vajpayee is ruling the country. I would say that there is a genuine difficulty in understanding the grammar and the dynamics of the ideological organisations like the RSS and the BJP.

The problem crops up because people are used to understand the relationship in the known context of the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India-Marxist. In communist set-up, the party is supreme and all others are fractional organisations which are being dictated, directed and controlled by the parent political parties. Their ideology dictates that everything is within the state and nothing is outside the state. It guides the communist parties in determining the relationship with their central organisations.

But the BJP-RSS relationships are entirely different. We are in favour of autonomous, self-regulated, stateless society. Therefore, the ideology commands that each organisation should be self-sufficient and self-dependent. Thus governing the country is Vajpayee's duty, and not the RSS.

But isn't the BJP government at the Centre a contradiction in terms? You have sacrificed your ideologies, policies and programmes to be in the government. The Vajpayee government is not very different from a Congress government.

Not necessarily. If the BJP coalition government might not have come into existence, any other government would have parted whatever remained of the economic sovereignty of the country away.

Similarly, on other aspects too, the national integrity of the country would have been compromised. Though we got a fractured mandate in the general elections, the BJP with its own responsibility towards the country took over the reins of the government despite the coalition constraints. We are not motivated by power. But power is an instrument to steer the country's interests.

But hasn't coalition politics tarnished the image of the BJP? The party lost in the state elections last year to the Congress.

I don't think that our decision to run a coalition government resulted in our loss in the assembly elections. Political parties like the BJP may suffer ups and downs in elections. But they always bounce back because of their own policies and programmes. Our inherent strength is rested in our ideology and the party organisations.

Don't you think the BJP's first experiment with the coalition politics at the Centre has helped improve the Congress's popularity?

The Congress popularity is superficial and temporary. There is always an initial euphoria about such developments, but the so-called Congress popularity will die down soon.

Why is that minority communities, especially the Christians in Gujarat, are being attacked by the Sangh organisations like the VHP, Bajrang Dal?

The facts about the attacks against Christians in Gujarat are not as they are portrayed in the media. Facts have been twisted and exaggerated. The Indian Express of Ahmedabad put out the picture of a church which we was reportedly demolished. We tracked it and found that the picture was not correct. The facts portrayed by the vernacular media in Gujarat is quite different from the picture presented by the English press.

What are the real facts according to you?

For example, the Gujarati media says that Christian groups first attacked a congregation of the Hindu Jagran Manch. But the English media did not report that. That might be the reason why some Hindu leaders publicly stated that there is an international conspiracy at work against India. Attacks against temples in Gujarat by Christians was not reported at all in the English press. I think at times that the English media gets cut off from the realities in the field for their own reasons.

So you mean to say there has been no communal flare-up in Gujarat?

There has been no communal violence. It was all very sporadic incidents. Much hullabaloo is created by some vested interests whom I do not want to name now. But whether it is a church, temple, mosque or a synagogue, any damage done to a place of worship should be condemned equivocally. Therefore, if a Mahavir temple in Gujarat was demolished, that is condemnable. But that does not justify the demolition of any church-like jhuggi jhopris.

Do you think Christian missionaries are forcibly converting tribal Hindus?

To understand the missionary activities, every one should read a report by Bhawani Shankar Niyogi on the issue. The report published in the 1960s is the only one of its kind that has studied the problem objectively and dispassionately. The report details the activities of the church in tribal areas especially in Madhya Pradesh and the north eastern states. It has gone into the depth of the ways and means of forced conversions in India.

Do you agree with the VHP statement that Nobel prizes to and Professor Amartya Sen and Mother Teresa was an international conspiracy against India?

I do not want to comment on what the VHP has said. As far as I am concerned, the Nobel awards to Mother Teresa and Professor Sen were given for their notable and laudable achievements in the fields of social service and academic excellence. There is no reason why we should object to it per se. I definitely admire the achievements of Mother Teresa and Professor Sen.

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