India: RSS embraces UP chief minister’s hard Hindutva rise

One of the most complicated relationships in Indian politics has been sorted — the one between multiple-term Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological fount of the Sangh Parivar.

The RSS, now celebrating its 100th year, fancies itself as the sober, self-effacing conservative conscience of Hindutva. For it to publicly echo and fully embrace Yogi Adityanath’s new war cry “Batenge toh katenge” (disunited we will perish. Albeit the essence is cruder than this translation) is a huge deal.

Yogi Adityanath and the RSS have always had a quietly contentious relationship. Yogi Adityanath is not from the RSS school of swayamsevaks (workers) and pracharaks (RSS full-timers). He has not been immersed and groomed in Nagpur (RSS headquarters) philosophy and ethos since childhood the way Nitin Gadkari, Devendra Fadnavis, Narendra Modi, and Shivraj Singh Chauhan have.

As the full-time mahant of the Goraknath temple and multiple-term Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur, Yogi kept his distance from the politics of the RSS and central BJP. The RSS did not approve of Yogi having his own army of foot soldiers — the Hindu Yuva Vahini — taking pride in always being the BJP’s boots on the ground.

The RSS did not even back Yogi when he made his first push for his dream job, Uttar Pradesh CM. Yogi had turned down several Modi offers for ministerial berths in Delhi, steadfast in preferring Lucknow.

Future to Modi

A lot of water has flowed under the Ganga since, as Yogi and the RSS have done a hard and complete reset on their relationship. The RSS now views Yogi and his views of keeping the Hindu Samaj united using hard Hindutva as the only prescriptive to the existential crisis posed by threats like the caste census.

Much like the huge push for Modi which came from the RSS cadre before 2014, which left the grandees on top with little choice but to embrace the Modi project wholeheartedly, the RSS is witnessing a similar craze for Yogi, who the cadres see as the future to Modi.

Yogi’s “bulldozer Baba” image, his tough man on law and order, and his contentious sound bites have made him a Hindutva icon — the number one favourite BJP campaigner, beating all other leaders. With his multiple terms as UP CM, India’s politically most important bellwether state which sends 80 members to Parliament, Yogi in the BJP is now in a league of his own.

The RSS recognises that fully and has now endorsed him completely, a fact perhaps deliberately missed by the mainstream media, which is influenced by Yogi’s rivals in the BJP.

The first thaw between a beleaguered Yogi and the Sangh came in the post-Covid aftermath when he realised that he needed RSS support to continue in his job. Post that, Yogi came to the understanding that he wouldn’t be able to fulfil his outsize political appetite without the full backing of the RSS.

Yogi also did a quiet outreach to India Inc, cultivated important relationships there, and kept out of central BJP politics.

Struggling with power dynamics

So what does this relationship reset imply?

The foreground is clear: Yogi is the new official “Hindu Hridaya Samrat” (emperor of Hindu hearts) with the RSS fully backing “Baba” and committed to hard and aggressive Hindutva.

The background is, during the three Modi terms, the RSS-BJP relationship was troubled with the power balance being on Modi’s side. There were no ideological differences, only that Modi did not tolerate any RSS veto or suggestions. Witness J P Nadda, BJP President’s statement before the last general election results that the BJP didn’t need the RSS anymore and was capable of taking care of its own affairs.

This caused huge anger in the Sangh and post the results, which saw the BJP without a full majority, barbs by Mohan Bhagwat, Sarsangchalak (RSS chief), about “arrogance and thinking oneself to be the almighty”.

The BJP sent the RSS an SOS before the Haryana elections, and the RSS sent in the troops who, even the BJP admits, made the difference turning a losing election into a winner. Having proved its point, the RSS is now happy playing “big brother” to the BJP again.

This implies in terms of hard politics that the RSS will have a huge say, perhaps a veto, in the selection of the next BJP president (incumbent Nadda’s term runs out in January) and the new President will not just be a Modi selection. Currently, RSS favourite and front-runner is Shivraj Singh Chauhan, former Madhya Pradesh CM.

Rumours that the RSS wants to foist Modi-baiter Sanjay Joshi are just that — rumours; the RSS has no interest in sophomoric power face-offs.

It has relished the power and status that have come with Modi’s three terms in office and is zealous about its privileged position finally at the heart of the political establishment. The RSS wants to ensure more of the same via Yogi Adityanath.

The caste census and its potential to divide the Hindu vote worries the RSS, and hence it feels Yogi has the potential to keep the Hindu vote together with what his habitual communally-baited statements which the RSS claims are only “robust statements of the reality”.