Age, Faith, Politics: Mohan Bhagwat’s Big Signals for BJP and India’s Future

By saying that age is no bar for holding office, Bhagwat has lifted a cloud of speculations over Modi’s future.

In the course of three days this week, Mohan Bhagwat dropped a minefield of cues for observers to decode with revealing messages that he seeks a Hindu pivot for India.

(Photo: Liju Joseph / The Quint)

Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat is arguably an astute chief of the outfit, who has shown agility to adjust and also shift goalposts at ease.

In the course of three days this week, Bhagwat dropped a minefield of cues for observers to decode with revealing messages that he seeks a Hindu pivot for India, as well as dropping hints of impending thrust on political Hindutva. Bhagwat also suggested that the RSS could be ceding more space to its political offshoot—the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Bhagwat lit a firestorm of speculations with his remarks made in Nagpur during a function to commemorate works of a fellow swayamsewak, Moropant Pingle, who had decided to step back while approaching 75 years of age. He issued a clarification in New Delhi just about a fortnight before Prime Minister Narendra Modi turns 75 years of age. Bhagwat himself will hit the milestone earlier than Modi.

Bhagwat, by saying that age is no bar for holding positions in office or posts, lifted a heavy cloud of speculations over Modi’s political career. By asserting that he too will stay in the lead role in the RSS, he ruled out any scope for dramatic turn in politics within the saffron family.

The BJP-RSS relations are currently at a stage of evolution. The political offshoot is asserting autonomy with its ideological parent. Bhagwat says that he's an expert in “holding shakahs (RSS meetings).” But he gives enough hints that he has all skills of a politician — to adjust, make compromises, and move on. 

Leadership is Ageless

Forcing an age limit on the BJP and Modi, its top electoral mascot, would have been an extraordinary task for the RSS. The BJP, despite a miffed RSS, won 240 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

If ‘Brand Modi’ can power the BJP to 240 Lok Sabha seats on its own, then the outfit, believe the party leaders, is almost close to gain an autonomy in contesting elections. This weakens the RSS ability to dictate terms with the BJP.

Yet, the autonomy is not fully attained, for the BJP still is stuck with incumbent party president JP Nadda.

That Bhagwat dismissed RSS role in the election of the next BJP president should be seen as a denial meant for public consumption. If not, there exists no other explanation for the BJP flouting its own norm of “One Man, One Post.”

So, the RSS is willing to adjust the age bar in exceptional cases, but by not sending an approval to list of probables for BJP chief post it also leaves a stalemate situation. The BJP going ahead on its own declaring a new party chief may damage relations with the RSS beyond the scope of repair.

Hindutva Harks Back amid Caste Conundrum

Hard Hindutva politics is on anvil. One may wonder if it had ever gone away. But post-Ayodhya Supreme Court verdict, the politics of Hindutva was just a pale shadow of the 1990s when the saffron wings rode the political Hindutva. 

Bhagwat has made a somersault within a short phase on political Hindutva. From asking the people (read saffron foot soldiers) to not search for “shivlings in each mosque,” Bhagwat exhorted on the last day of his three-day Vigyan Bhawan centenary programme on unveiling vision of the RSS that “The organisation will not take up the cause of Mathura and Kashi, but we will not stop swayamsewaks if they take up the cause.” 

By giving freedom to volunteers of the organisation to take up temple causes, Bhagwat is signalling that the RSS has made an adjustment in the face of evolving political challenges. The BJP ceded the lead position in the Lok Sabha 2024 verdict to Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. The Hindi heartland goes to Assembly polls in another two years, in 2027. Kashi and Mathura are religious nerve centres of two politically sensitive regions of Uttar Pradesh. 

Giving freedom to saffron volunteers is an indubitable message that the activists can launch their campaigns for Kashi and Mathura. Saffron cheerleaders, claiming to be historians, have already produced books to argue that the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi stands at ruins of a Hindu Shiva temple. A rise in politics of Hindutva may counterbalance the emergence of the political Mandal, principally in the Hindi heartland.

The Hindu Pivot

Bhagwat expounded his theory of “Hindu Rashtra.” He wants the people to believe that the “Hindu Rashtra” means a nation of the people with common DNA (ancestry), culture and heritage, spanning over 40,000 years. The term Hindu shouldn’t be seen with a narrow definition of a religion, Bhagwat argued. He also sought to argue that the “Hindu Rashtra doesn’t seek uniformity, for unity in diversity is an Indian heritage.” 

His remarks may sound a relief to those who have been alarmed at instances of cow-lynching, violence in the name of wearing particular clothes, etc. But Bhagwat may just be giving a moral template for “Hindu Rashtra” for international audiences. Remarks were made on the first day at the Vigyan Bhawan outreach with dozens of diplomats in attendance. 

The RSS observers argue that Bhagwat’s statement doesn’t rule out pursuit of a particular shade of Indianness from the people, which will align with saffron worldview. Thus, Bhagwat scoffs at roads named after “invaders.”   

From Population Policy to Three Child Advocacy 

For the past one decade, the RSS had been deliberating on a possible population policy roadmap. The RSS insiders have long been insisting that the organisation could prioritise population policy as its core agenda. 

Deliberations for years possibly led the RSS to a belief that a population policy at the government level may have the least consequences. The RSS leaders have been claiming that the Hindu population is shrinking as a share of the total population. 

Bhagwat’s advocacy of three children is a response to growing concerns within the organisation that the Hindu population should again claim 80 percent and more share in the total. By calling for denying jobs to immigrants (illegal), Bhagwat’s statement should be seen along with the Prime Minister’s announcement for constituting a high-powered demography commission.  

Bhagwat, at the same time, made a case for a national communication language. Without mentioning his choice of that language, it shouldn’t be tough to guess a preference for Hindi. That he describes all languages as national, while advocating educational instructions in mother tongues, Bhagwat has not said anything new but just packaged a long-standing view that Hindi should emerge as a link language in the country.

(The author is a senior Delhi-based journalist, with over two decades of tracking politics and parliament for several publications. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)