Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 14: Without naming the BJP, its ideological leader the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), continued its tirade on the ruling party for the arrogance the party leaders had shown during the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections.
Taking up the cue from the RSS Sarsanghchalak (chief) Mohan Bhagwat’s comment that a “true sevak” never gets arrogant, the RSS ideologue Indresh Kumar said on Friday that the BJP not getting a majority on its own in the 2024 Parliamentary elections was “Lord Ram’s way of punishment for the arrogance.”
Speaking at the ‘Ramrath Ayodhya Yatra Darshan Poojan Samaroh’ event in Kanota near Jaipur, said the BJP fell short of a majority as a feeling of arrogance had taken over the leaders of the party while the opposition INDIA bloc ended at Number 2 position for being anti-Ram as the leaders had shown disregard for the Lord.
“The party which did bhakti of Lord Ram and became arrogant was stopped at 240, however, it became the biggest party. And those who had no faith in Ram were stopped at 234,” he said, referring to the number of seats the BJP and the INDIA bloc won in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections.
Indresh Kumar said Lord Ram does not discriminate and does not punish. “Ram does not make anyone lament. Ram gives justice to everyone. He gives and will keep on giving. Those who pray to Lord Ram should be humble… Lord Ram does not discriminate and does not punish. Ram delivers justice to everyone. He gives and continues giving to all. Lord Ram was always just and will remain so,” he said.
“In 2024, look at the ‘vidhaan (justice) of Ram Rajya in a democracy. Those who worshipped Ram but gradually became arrogant were made the biggest party. But they were not given the full majority due to their arrogance. Those who opposed Ram, they all together could not muster enough strength. This is Lord’s justice,” Kumar said.
“It is not strange… this is the punishment for your lack of faith and you will not succeed. Those who oppose Lord Ram are automatically punished by God. So Lallu Singh was told by Lord Ram to take rest for the next five years,” Kumar said.
Lallu Singh was the BJP’s sitting MP of Faizabad which include Ayodhya, but lost to the Samajwadi Party candidate in the 2024 polls. His defeat in Ayodhya-dominated seat was embarrassing for the BJP as it came just three months after the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The Ram Temple was also a major poll plank of the BJP in these elections.
Curiously, it was Mr Lallu Singh who first talked about the possibility of the BJP government making changes in the constitution if the NDA came to power with 400 seats. This was later repeated by other BJP Lok Sabha candidates, including Arun Govil, who played the role of Lord Ram in the famous “Ramayana” television serial. The issue was later picked up by the Opposition and repeatedly underlined by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his speeches cautioning the voters about possible changes in the constitution. It is speculated that this pushed the Dalit and underprivileged classes away from the BJP, leading to the saffron party’s humiliating defeat in UP.
Mr Kumar’s comments on BJP’s arrogance came just days after Mohan Bhagwat criticised the Sangh Parivar’s political wing on the same ground. Addressing a gathering of RSS leaders and workers following the culmination of Karyakarta Vikas Varg – a periodic training programme for RSS workers – in Nagpur on the day the new BJP-led coalition held its first Cabinet meeting, the RSS chief had said a true sevak (one who serves the people) does not have “ahankar” (arrogance) and works without causing any hurt to others.
He was equally hurt at the kind of accusations flying against the opposition parties and the ruling alliance during the poll campaigning. He regretted about the bitter poll campaign and had said “decorum was not maintained.”
“A true sevak maintains decorum while working… The one who maintains decorum does his work, but remains unattached. There is no arrogance that I did this. Only such a person has the right to be called a sevak,” he said with an apparent reference to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He had also said elections should be viewed as a competition, and not war. “The kind of things that were said, the way the two sides castigated each other (during the elections)… the way no one cared about social divisions being created because of what was being done… and for no reason the Sangh was dragged into this… untruths were spread with the use of technology. Is this the way knowledge should be used? How will the country operate like this?” he had said.
On the Opposition, Bhagwat said, “I do not call it Virodhi Paksh, I call it Pratipaksh. Pratipaksh virodhi nahi hai (The Opposition is not an opponent). It is revealing a side and that must be deliberated upon. If we understand that this is how we must operate, then we must be cognisant of the decorum required in contesting elections. That decorum was not maintained.”
He said elections are integral to democracy and since there are two sides, there is a competition. “Because of it, there is a tendency to leave the other behind and it should be like that. But even there, decorum is important. One should not use untruths. People have been elected, they will sit in Parliament and run the country through consensus. Consensus is our tradition,” he had said.