Herald, Panjim, 24th July 2005 How the Sangh is controlling Goa? BY Nityendra Y Kamat PANJIM, JULY 23 — When BJP’s national secretary Sudheendra Kulkarni, a close aide of now controversy-ridden national President L K Advani, accused the RSS of “micro-managing” the BJP and remote-controlling its leaders, just before he quit the post, little did he realise that he had opened a can of worms throughout the country. The question is: Was the Sangh Parivar really remote-controlling the activities of the BJP? And this question grew in importance in Goa especially after the fall of the Manohar Parrikar government. Yes, in Goa, there is much more to the BJP scenario than what meets the eye. It may appear very Manohar Parrikar-centric but that is wrong. Says writer and social thinker Advocate Uday Bhembre, “Parrikar may have tried to say no to some proposals from the Sangh but apparently there were many in his government who pursued or patronised directly or indirectly (the Sangh agenda).’’ Parrikar might have done a tight-rope walk in the first stint as chief minister with many RSS-initiated decisions remaining camouflaged. However, in the second stint, some things were quite blatant and obvious, analysts say. And it showed how well-entrenched the RSS influence was in the party. BJP is the political wing of the Sangh Parivar while the RSS is the fountainhead of Hindutva. “The relationship between the RSS and the BJP is the same throughout the country and is decided at the top level which gets percolated down to the State level,” says Adv Bhembre. The distinction between the two is that all BJP men/leaders have not come from the RSS. It was quite clear that all the decisions of the RSS may not have been pushed by the BJP government but there were many it couldn’t reject. At times, everyone lapped up certain “good decisions” without knowing what the real intention was. “Their planning is very intelligently done,” said noted social activist and convenor of Lok Shakti, Datta Damodar Naik. They always tried to give an impression that all their decision were in public interest. Working in a very subtle manner in league with Sangh Parivar wings and maintaining secrecy has been an important feature of the BJP working, “especially in the education and socio-cultural sectors,” says Bhembre.
How the Sangh is controlling Goa? partly influenced by the RSS. The reason is obvious because it is very rare that the education portfolio is held by the chief minister and that many changes were brought in to suit their interests.’’ The first signs of its saffron colour came to light when Parrikar government in the guise of keeping government offices open for more days, cancelled days certain religious public holidays such as Good Friday, Feast of St Francis Xavier, Gudi Padva, Id, etc. Following the public outcry and media criticism particularly the Herald, besides protests from coalition partners, the decision had to be withdrawn. But whether the decision makers had more concern for the common man or had some other agenda was quite obvious. Fortunately, this vicious plan was not allowed to go through, otherwise, they would have gone ahead with their programmes. According to Datta Naik, “the RSS as an organisation has grown at the grass-root level since the last five years. The massive rally of the RSS which featured then Goa CEO Parrikar in the RSS uniform, on the occassion of Gudi Padva three years ago was an indication of the force of the organization in the State. And it was during this time that affiliate organsiations like Vidhya Bharti (education), Sahakari Bharti (co-operative field), Sanskar Bharti (art & culture), Durya Vayni (women’s groups), besides ABVP -- the students wing of the parent body – RSS flourished, which allowed the VHP to grow in Goa thus allowing general secretary Dr Togadia to make alleged inflammatory speech in Panjim. No doubt realising that this programme would not meet every one’s approval, the BJP launched several beautification programmes which attempted to attract the intellectual class to the party. And very few knew that it was being done with a tinge of Hindutva. Thus starts the process of slowly indoctrinating the person with soft-Hindutva, says Naik. -- Question everything - Karl Marx
