The tectonic shift in India’s political history happened in the General Elections of 2014 which led to the present political situation in the country which can be described as ‘BJP versus others’ instead of the previous political situation which could be described as ‘Congress versus others’.
If there is one organisation that can be given credit for this change, it’s the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and that’s what makes RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat currently the most influential personality outside the government set up in India’s politics.
Kingshuk Nag’s book on Mohan Bhagwat very aptly calls Bhagwat ‘Influencer-In-Chief’. For any student of history or political science, this is an account of what the RSS stands for, where it comes from, what it believes in and how it governs. The book takes you back to the history of the organisation by narrating the details of its founder’s childhood. Explaining the legacy and how it shaped and then explains how and why the RSS became so very influential in the current context.
It’s obvious that Bhagwat has reached where he has because of what the organisation has achieved in the past six decades and the book nicely goes into the details of explaining how it all happened over this period, talking about previous RSS chiefs’ tenures especially that of K Sudarshan and other sarsanghchalaks.
One very interesting angle Nag discovers is of how Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bhagwat have been exactly of same age and how their growth in their organisations has happened simultaneously. This angle helps the readers in decoding answers to many questions that they may have had in their mind about the relationship between Modi and Bhagwat. The details presented by Nag seem very interesting for any student of Political Science.
Another aspect which makes the book very readable is the insight it gives on RSS’ thinking on various complex issues that India faces today such as the Kashmir issue and the problem of communal factionalism in many parts of the country. It also gives the details about the background of how the RSS is now reaching out to territories which were never touched earlier such as the North Eastern region of India and states like West Bengal and Kerala, which have traditionally been under the influence of leftist ideology.
Finally, the book gives a detailed account of what background Bhagwat has come from and how he has influenced the organisation and the BJP in the past few years to become such a powerful personality. It’s definitely worth investing your time in and provides many new insights that even senior political observers perhaps were not aware of earlier.
