Keeping together: Are BJP, RSS getting 'realistic' on mutual ideologies?

Formally, the RSS' offshoots share the same values and see things similarly. In practice, there's a lot of tension to be managed

At the annual coordination meeting in Vrindavan (last September) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its constituents, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah was seated with the other heads below. While the Sangh’s sarsanghchalak (supremo) and the seniors presided from the dais.

Signifying that in the paterfamilias’ order, every progeny was equal, even if one was perceived as mightier than the others. “This arrangement distinguishes the BJP from the Left parties. The CPM’s frontal organisations are subservient to the political party. The BJP and the other affiliates orbit around the RSS,” said a BJP vice-president of RSS provenance.

At the