Modi in Nagpur — mending fences and miles to go

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ is an adage. It conveys the meaning that a set of complex and even multiple ideas can be conveyed by one single image.
Paradoxically, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s social media handler(s) did not scrutinise a picture of the premier alongside the sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mohan Bhagwat, with their respective associates, before routinely posting it on social media.
The occasion was Modi’s much-publicised and hyped visit to Nagpur and an important RSS facility in the city — the Hedgewar Smriti Mandir in the city’s Reshimbagh locality.
The campus houses the memorials of the first two RSS chiefs, K B Hedgewar and M S Golwalkar, a number of administrative offices, an auditorium, and several private and meeting rooms.
Modi visited this complex to pay homage to the RSS founder and his successor, and for a quiet word or two with Bhagwat. He also had a short session with about a score or so sangh veterans, catching up with old acquaintances and establishing new ties.
Taken and published to convey the message that all is well within the Sangh parivar and between the two most crucial organisations within the political fraternity — the ‘parent’ RSS, and its principal ‘offshoot’, the Bharatiya Janata Party (and Union government) — the photograph at the memorial, however, lets slip an impression that certainly would not have been in the minds of either photographer, or those standing before the camera.

With six of the éminences grises in the frame, the two flanks were demarcated — the RSS (sangh) side had Bhagwat close to the centre of the frame with former sarkaryavah Bhaiyyaji Joshi and a local representative to his right. To Bhagwat’s left was the government’s side with Modi, followed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari (also Nagpur Lok Sabha representative).
The distance between Modi and Bhagwat was the greatest, obviously to ensure that the statue of RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in the background was not eclipsed, but in this instance also being representative of the gulf that has existed between the two organisations (sangh and sarkar) and their leaders for almost 15 months.
The message which comes out from this picture, and what was stated by the two leaders, is that after a fairly long period of turbulent relationship, the two had come to realise that they not just required each other but had to stand united as well.
Although the process of reconciling divergences has been underway for some time, this was the first public function when an attempt was made to showcase the restored ties. Yet, this is the not the last act in this protracted episode of undisguised bitterness towards one another.
Although a resolution of this conflict is likely soon and a truce is expected to be declared with an ‘unanimous’ agreement over the next BJP president, this chapter of differences is unlikely to be the last one, just as this was not the first occasion when the RSS and the BJP were at loggerheads with one another.
The widening differences between the RSS and the BJP were among the worst kept political secrets of 2024. Not an organisation given to deifying individuals, the RSS leadership first frowned when the twin slogans — ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ and ‘Abki Baar, 400 Paar’ — became the only wheels of the BJP’s parliamentary campaign.
The relationship worsened when party president J P Nadda’s hubris-laden statement that the party did not need the RSS and the RSS hit back by remaining conspicuously absent during the electoral campaign. The BJP’s reduced tally of 240 seats in the Lok Sabha amply underscored the ‘ability’ of the RSS.
In the Assembly polls, first in Haryana, followed by Maharashtra, and finally in Delhi, the RSS rejoined the campaign and ensured that its entire network of cadre turned out for the BJP’s candidates. It saw the BJP strolling to comfortable victories.
This was not before an assurance by the BJP that the campaign would not be single-handedly driven by Modi, and that he would take the back seat, at least when compared to past polls when he was always the epicentre of the electoral crusade.
Plans, however, must be drawn for the future because Modi is no longer as popular a draw as he was a decade ago, although the idea of Hindutva has coagulated since 2014. This has resulted in the BJP leaning repeatedly on vicious communal polarisation.
Importantly, prior to the March 30th visit, Modi last visited Nagpur in 2013, shortly after the BJP’s national executive meeting in Goa, where he was chosen as the chairman of the election campaign committee. By then, the RSS had little option but to back Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.
It is not that the RSS has greater options insofar as the leadership is concerned, as of now there still is no clear replacement for Modi. Yet, his dependence on the RSS is greater than before because of which Modi has very consciously recollected the role of the RSS in shaping his political career.
Both in the Lex Fridman Podcast some weeks ago and in his speech at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of Madhav Netralaya's annexe, Modi sang paeans to the RSS and described it as a great banyan tree which is also the ‘eternal’ protector of the ‘immortal’ culture of India.
That the script of the event had been worked out previously became evident when Bhagwat, despite preceding Modi, spoke in a reciprocating tone. He not just termed Modi’s presence at the event as ‘auspicious’ because his visit was on the Hindu new year day, but also added that he too was ‘keen’ to listen to Modi.
Modi’s visit to Nagpur was effectively an occasion when both the RSS and the prime minister ‘atoned for past misdemeanours’. In August 2000, when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited the Reshimbagh memorial, then sarsanghchalak K S Sudarshan stayed away in a public snub of Vajpayee with which he could never reconcile.
Likewise, after becoming prime minister, Modi paid scant respect to the RSS and even to Bhagwat and very consciously cultivated his personality cult. After the snub during the campaign, Modi started on a correction trail by terming the new government as ‘NDA government’ instead of ‘Modi government’ as he did till then.
Public assertions of mutual-dependence notwithstanding, it remains to be seen if the two — the Modi-led BJP and the RSS — will consistently be able to erase the past animosity and keep basic instincts on a tight leash. In Modi’s case, it is his exaggerated or grandiose self-perception, and for the RSS it is the belief in the primacy of the sangathan or organisation with the sarkar or the government merely being a facilitator for connecting it with the samaj or society.
Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Delhi-based journalist, is author of 'The Demolition, The Verdict and The Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project'. X: @NilanjanUdwin.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.