Togadia ‘out of favour’ with RSS?

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 20

Earlier this week, Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s tallest leader Pravin Togadia alleged that he was being targeted by agencies from Rajasthan and Gujarat and the Centre — incidentally all manned by its sister organisation BJP.

Sangh sources, who claim it to be “aimed at diverting attention from the larger issue”, say Togadia has “fallen out of favour with the RSS” (the parent organisation of both BJP and VHP) because of his “blatant anti-Narendra Modi and anti-BJP stance”.

Not just him, apparently Vrijesh Upadhyay, general secretary of RSS-backed labour organisation Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), is also “in disfavour” because of continuous criticism of the Modi government’s policies.

Togadia’s “role” in the run-up to the Gujarat elections and the BMS questioning the government policies has not augured well with the RSS. There may be others in the line for publicly going against the BJP-led Centre or its policies, say sources. “Time and again these leaders were asked to not propagate thoughts contrary to the interests of the government and the party outside the requisite forum and also streamline activities as per the interests of the organisation,” they say.

“He (Togadia) may have just been trying to preempt the inevitable. What is playing out in the public could be the last scene of the ongoing turf war,” they say.

As per Sangh sources, the RSS is “completely in sync with the Modi government on policy issues and believes the vast network of its various arms should be used for the overall benefit of the organisation and the nation”.

On how the face of the VHP, Togadia could be sidelined, they quote the example of BJP leader LK Advani. “Was Advaniji not an important leader of the party,” they counter-question. Sangh leaders say the RSS is “completely aligned” with the government and it would prefer if Togadia and others like VHP chief Raghav Reddy and BMS’s Upadhyay “step down on their own”.