RSS laid groundwork for break-up

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 19

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) played a key role in convincing the BJP to dump the PDP ahead of the 2019 parliamentary elections to ensure the victory of the party.

Although the BJP had taken approval from the Sangh Parivar to enter into an alliance with the PDP in J&K, the RSS leadership was opposing the continuation of the coalition due to some “controversial” decisions taken by the J&K Government over the past two years.

A top RSS leader, requesting anonymity, told The Tribune that J&K situation was thoroughly discussed at a meeting which was held in May at Pune.

“The Sangh Parivar leadership was unanimous that continuing alliance with the PDP, which was pursuing soft separatism to nourish its core constituency in the Kashmir valley, will demoralise the party cadre throughout the country,” he said, adding that the BJP leadership was conveyed about the concern of the Sangh Parivar about the deteriorating situation in the Valley.

 “The RSS cadre across the country in general and in the Jammu region in particular was not giving any encouraging reports about the performance of the PDP-BJP government,” he said, adding amnesty to stone-pelters and other pro-separatist steps initiated by the PDP leaders had not gone down well among a section of the Sangh Parivar.

Not just the RSS, other offshoots of the Sangh Parivar, including the ABVP, had recently conveyed their concern over the discriminatory policies of the PDP-BJP coalition regime, sources said.

With the appointment of hardcore RSS man Ravinder Raina as the state BJP chief on May 13, the countdown of the regime had started because he was assigned the task to aggressively take up contentious issues to embarrass the PDP, said sources. Raina, a former ‘parcharak’, was asked to adopt an aggressive posture to take on the coalition partner.

The Sangh Parivar leadership was also facing criticism for adopting double standards on sensitive issues like abrogation of Article 35A.

While the RSS leadership is openly supporting abrogation of the Article, the BJP, due to coalition compulsions, had failed to take a stand on this issue in the court.