This refers to Bharat Bhushan's article "Why Narendra Modi keeps mum" (January 14). Regarding the trajectory of his relations with the Sangh Parivar members, Prime Minister Narendra Modi just cannot have his cake and eat it too for a long time. They had helped him to ride to power at the Centre and are continuing to help the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Assembly elections taking place in various states. Modi, therefore, just cannot ride roughshod over the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its offshoots for their demand of their pound of flesh from him in the form of freedom to promote the Hindutva agenda.
If now, Modi likes to accord priority to his trite programme of good governance and growth, he will have to rely exclusively on its new constituency of the middle-class and youth. This is because the Hindutva agenda and theirs are immiscible. But given his grounding in the RSS ideology, for his long-term political interests, he may like to depend more on the Sangh Parivar conglomeration than the new constituency.
Tarsem Singh Hoshiarpur
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