With each passing day, the writing on the wall is becoming clear. After Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) former MP and Modi critic Dr Subramanyan Swamy created ripples in political circles through his post on micro blogging site X last month, saying that if Modi did not adhere to RSS Pracharak’s norms, he will have to forego PM’s chair through other methods, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal has fired another barb, this time to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ‘ideological partner’ of BJP.
A bruised Kejriwal, recalibrating his political strategy post six month of trauma, wrote a letter to RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat seeking answers for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s actions, apparently in a bid to dent latter’s image by implying that the parent Hindutva organisation was the master which should keep its child in control.
In the letter to Bhagwat, the former Delhi CM asked whether he agreed with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s politics of ‘using central agencies to break up parties and topple opposition governments.’ In the letter, Kejriwal posed five questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s actions and emphasized that ensuring the tricolour flies proudly, was a collective responsibility of all Indians.
The AAP supremo wrote that he was ‘very worried’ about the current situation in the country. “The direction in which the BJP’s central government is taking the country and its politics is harmful for the entire nation,” he said.
“If this continues, our democracy will end, our country will end. Parties will keep coming and going, elections will keep coming and going, leaders will keep coming and going, but India will always remain. It is our responsibility to ensure that the tricolor of this country flies proudly in the sky always. In this regard, there are some questions in the minds of the people which I am placing before you. My intention is only to save and strengthen Indian democracy,” he added.
Kejriwal’s five questions to Bhagwat
Kejriwal claimed that across the country, political parties were made to fall apart and governments overthrown by offering ‘all kinds of inducements or threats’ to their leaders with ED-CBI action against them. ‘Is it right for the country and its democracy to topple elected governments in this manner? Do you or the RSS approve of gaining power by any means of dishonesty,’ asked Kejriwal.
The AAP chief stated that some Opposition leaders, who were labelled corrupt by Prime Minister and other BJP leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah, were inducted into the BJP on several occasions.
Taking a veiled dig at NCP chief Ajit Pawar, the AAP supremo said, “On 28 June 2023, in a public speech, Modi accused a party and one of its leaders of a scam of Rs 70,000 crores. A few days later, that party witnessed dismantling and the government was formed with the same leader who was called corrupt till then. He was then made the Deputy Chief Minister. There are many such cases where corrupt leaders of other parties were inducted into the BJP. Did you or RSS workers imagine such a BJP? Don’t you feel pain seeing all this,” he asked.
Arvind Kejriwal further noted that the BJP was a party that was born “from the womb of RSS” and it is the responsibility of the RSS to bring BJP back on the right path, if it was misled. “Have you ever stopped the Prime Minister from doing all these wrong things,” the AAP leader questioned RSS chief.
The former Delhi CM while reffering to sttament given by JP Nadda, mentioned that the BJP party president during the Lok Sabha elections, said that BJP no longer needs RSS. “RSS is in a way the mother of BJP. Has the son grown so much that he has started taunting his mother? I have come to know that this statement of Nadda ji has deeply hurt every RSS worker. The country wants to know what his statement felt in your heart,” he asked in the letter written in Hindi.
The AAP leader while questioning the stature of Narndra Modi post 75 years of age, claimed that a rule was made that BJP leaders would retire after the age of 75 years, under which many big party leaders like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were asked to take retirement in the past 10 years. “Now Amit Shah ji says that this law will not be applicable to Modi ji. Do you agree that the law under which Advani ji was retired will not be applicable to Modi ji now? Shouldn’t the law be the same for everyone,” Kejriwal asked.
The former CM argued that these questions were haunting the minds of every Indian today and hoped that Bhagwat would think over the questions and reply.
Says political analyst Abhay Awasthi, “Arvind Kejriwal has seen all in last six months and seems to leave nothing to decimate the ‘double-engine’ government. “The questions asked by Kejriwal are political softballs but they are well assembled to bring Bhagwat into his new political narrative. Kejriwal’s quest to ascertain if RSS agreed with BJP’s style of politics using central agencies make parties crumble and overthrow opposition governments besides induct “paak-saaf” leaders into its fold, is a well formulated move to pull the Hindutva fountainhead into the muddle,” he said.
Referring to the statement of Arvind Kejriwal at a recent “Has the son become so big now that it is showing attitude to his mother?”, Awasthi said, “It a clever move to further dent the larger than life image of Modi as a saffron saviour, which made RSS back BJP wholeheartedly in 2014 and 2019. These questions could well define the future of Modi in a dissent-suppressed BJP as well as Indian politics,” he added.
