AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 51Earlier, only the organisational general
secretary was drawn from the RSS and the
rest of the leaders were chosen by the BJP.
When Ram Lal became organisational
secretary, the BJP inducted many joint
general secretaries and Santhosh was
one of them. The BJP’s constitution now
mandates nine national general secretaries,
and for the first time, the RSS has deputed a
representative (Ram Madhav) as one of the
general secretaries as well.
According to sources, the
BJP now plans to appoint
organisational secretaries
at district levels to ensure
further coordination. “Local
issues need to be conveyed
to policymakers and policies
should be communicated at
the local level. The post of the
organisational general secretary
becomes crucial and he represents
the BJP during coordination
meetings and gathers opinions from
other affiliate organisations on nationaland policy issues,” said a source.
The RSS and the BJP may differ on
many issues. So, the organisational
general secretary needs to build
consensus among sangh affiliates
over various policy issues. Less than
10 per cent of the members in the
affiliates have a strong ideological
background and they will worry
about their interests rather than
ideology. To fight the frictions, the BJP
has increased training programmes
for cadres ranging from block-level
leaders to MPs.
The priorities are going to be dif-
ferent for the BJP this time. As Prime
Minister Narendra Modi has put it,
the second term will focus on fulfill-
ing the aspirations of the people and,
of course, the sangh parivar on issues
such as the Ram Mandir, Uniform
Civil Code, Article 370, internal secu-
rity and the education sector. It makes
the role of the organisational general
secretary even more crucial.
The BJP also needs to adapt to the
mass influx of leaders and cadres
from other parties. Insiders said the
phenomenon was not new. Just be-
fore the 1967 elections, a large num-
ber of Congress leaders had joined
the BJP. “When Deendayalji was
asked what was the guarantee that the
Jana Sangh would not become anoth-
er Congress, he said if the Jana Sangh
became another Congress, the sangh
would create another Jana Sangh,”
said a sangh parivar old timer.
Suresh Kumar said the BJP used
to be “a class party” till K.N. Govin-
dacharya took charge as organisa-
tional general secretary. It became a
mass-based party after that. “Through
social engineering, many people
joined the party. The so-called outsid-
ers joining the BJP is being seen as an
opportunity for the party to expand
its base,” he said. “West Bengal and
Kerala are classic examples of how
people with different ideologies have
come into the BJP. It is now up to us
to effectively integrate them like in
Assam and the northeastern states.”The
RSS and
the BJP may differ
on many issues. So, the
organisational general
secretary needs to build
consensus among sangh
affiliates over
various policy
issues.PTIMAN ON THE MOVE
B.L. Santhosh