When RSS chief decried for his desire to have Ram Mandir at the legally disputed site in Ayodhya, the question that should be raised as to just how many times voters in Gujarat need to be mobilized in name of Bhagwan Ram? With BJP facing a gag order on raking up communal feelings, RSS is the right choice for the saffron brigade to try and polarize Gujarat elections once more.
But the need of doing so puts up a different question all together. Has BJP been defeated on the Gujarat development model completely? Has its grass root level organisation asked for help from RSS? The answers seem to be yes. The present indications – at the very least show a lack of confidence in 11 Ashoka Road. From challenging Rahul Gandhi in Amethi to being forced to fight him in every taluqa and tehsil, congress has presented a new kind of challenge to Amit Shah. While Rahul’s road shows did show put in a lot of zeal into congress, to those of us sitting in Delhi, it seemed a an effort, too late to say the day. We believed that Congress’s local network is too broken to be a challenge to Amit Shah’s organisation.
But the RSS entry into the foray shows a different kind of panic button being pressed. RSS as organisations keeps its distance from BJP, coming to its aid only for long term strategic play. One can look into UP politics to understand it better. Both 2014 general elections and 2017 state elections in UP were supported by RSS volunteers, as BJP, with over two decades of out of power syndrome, hardly had anything of its own.
Calling out to RSS for help in Gujarat presents a different kind of Revival for Congress Party. And this ensures us that battle of Gujarat is far from over and that Rahul gandhi is doing something right.
Jai Ram ji ki.
