Sangh-BJP equation set to change with key appointment

Krishna Gopal to replace Soni as RSS-BJP interface

After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a generational change is set to take place in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS has confirmed it would soon appoint Krishna Gopal as its pointsperson responsible for coordination between the Sangh and its political arm, the BJP.

Gopal, an RSS sah sarkaryavah or joint general secretary, will succeed Suresh Soni in the key position. Soni, also a sah sarkaryavah or number three in the Sangh hierarchy, had been the interface between the RSS and BJP for nearly a decade.

The change is seen as not merely a switch in personnel dictated by RSS chief Mohanrao Bhagwat but could affect current power equations within both the organisations. It might also lead to a marked shift from the existing quality of the mutual rapport of the RSS and the BJP.

The RSS’s decision came on the first day of the week-long meeting of its pracharaks in Lucknow. “The RSS has decided to appoint Krishna Gopal as the new coordinator to deal with the party (BJP),” All-India Prachar Pramukh of RSS Manmohan Vaidya told the PTI on Monday.

The coordinator is a crucial link between the party and its ideological mentor, the RSS, particularly when the BJP is in power at the Centre. Before Soni, Madandas Devi had performed the intricate balancing act being the Sangh’s interface with the BJP during the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance government. Vajpayee, who was senior to then RSS chief K S Sudarshan, gave the Sangh little elbow room in government’s decision-making during the 1998-2004 NDA government years. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi suffers from inadequacy of seniority in relation to RSS chief Bhagwat, and would have to listen to the Sangh, particularly as it contributed to the BJP getting a full majority in the Lok Sabha election. The role of Gopal as the pointsman, therefore, would be much more significant and powerful.

Soni’s exit is also a message from the Sangh to its pracharaks and BJP workers that the RSS values moral integrity uppermost. Unfortunately, Soni, after his name figured in the Madhya Pradesh teacher training scam in June, had come to represent erosion in moral values. It is something that the RSS wants to restore by appointing Gopal to the key post. Soni’s proximity to a particular lobby group in the BJP had also contributed to the discontent against him within the RSS. It is likely that Soni’s ill-health will be officially cited as the reason for his gradual exit. Soni, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, was once a powerful enough presence to rival even the influence of Bhagwat within the Sangh Parivar, but now finds himself increasingly weakened.

The choice of Gopal has an underlying ‘back to the basics’ message. Gopal, a Brahmin from Mathura, is somebody perceived to represent classical puritanical ethics and morals. He has worked extensively on issues of cultural nationalism, like religious conversion, in the North-Eastern states. Gopal, aged 63, spent seven years as a kshetra pracharak for the North-Eastern states based out of Guwahati, and has deep knowledge of the region’s tribal communities, ethnicity issues and underground movements. His expertise of the North-East could be of assistance to the BJP trying to widen its appeal in that region.

Gopal, however, has spent little time in south of the Vindhyas, particularly states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where, again, the BJP has attempted a determined push to carve political space for itself. But he is rated as a quick learner, and unlike Soni, is expected to work more independent of a particular lobby group within the BJP. In recent years, Gopal looked after the RSS’s work in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The RSS has recently deputed Ram Madhav and Shiv Prakash to the BJP. Madhav is likely to succeed BJP’s general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal, who is likely to return to the parent organisation.