Less than two months ago Subhash Velingkar, a professor by choice and now politician by chance, decided to go and speak, what he felt, were a few “home truths” to a member of Manohar Parrikar’s family. Frustrated by his inability to make the BJP government in Goa, function according to the way he wanted, something he took for granted, he told Mr Parrikar’s family member that “the time for war has come”. Stressing that their family ties cannot be broken, his war against the Parrikar dominated BJP government should not be seen as a personal attack on “Manohar”. That said Velingkar launched a full-fledged tirade against what was his own party resulting in his parent organisation RSS sacking him. His Sangh (also meaning togetherness) with Parrikar was broken, politically at least.
However, on the fateful night of his sacking, Velingkar took his team “back to the barracks” — in this case the Hegdewar High school, in Bambolim — for a show of strength where almost the entire cadre of the RSS decided to quit and join the rebel outfit of Velingkar’s, piquantly called the RSS Goa Prant.
“The BJP did not want me to lead a movement against them. Since I am the face of the movement, they wanted to demolish me… we won’t tolerate the BJP’s domination over the RSS,” Velingkar said immediately after he got “relieved” of his post.
The RSS headquarters in Nagpur, not used to open rebellions, and that too in tiny blip of a state not expected to cause any unrest, found itself dealing with new and strange phenomenon called dissent. But at the end of the day, the larger issue of fiercely guarding the mother tongue by refusing grants to schools which chose to instruct in English, became dear to the new official RSS as well to Velingkar.
“Parrikar did not handle the MOI issue properly (when he was chief minister),” said Laxman Behre, the ‘official’ RSS or Goa Vibhag Sangh Chalak’. He said “the Sangh does not ask its Swayamsevaks to vote for any political party, not even the BJP. Let the BJP work on its own. Sangh will not ask its workers to vote for any particular party. We have not issued any such instructions even in the past. What we tell the workers is to ensure 100 per cent voting, and elect a good person. Sangh treats all political parties at par.”
What this means is that even with the change in leadership the BJP cannot expect much support from the RSS cadres in Goa.
The BJP’s battle lies now in ensuring the cadre, either Velingkar’s cadre or his replacement, the Goa Vibhag Sangh Chalak’, Laxman Behre’s cadre, do not vote against BJP candidates in the 2017 elections.
But BJP sources say, “The RSS workers will follow the command of their chief. They can never support a rebel who has been sacked with the sanction of the RSS chief.” According to BJP-RSS insiders, “In the RSS, there is absolutely no place for rebels. Two things it will never tolerate are disobedience and indiscipline.”
Krishnaraj Sukerkar, who heads the RSS in north Goa and a Velingkar supporter, says the BJP may be a powerful political party, but the RSS is a key component to its victories. He admits that it will not be easy to form a political party and that the BBSM decision to float one is a symbolic move for the agitation.
Michael Lobo, a BJP MLA, said the party will sort out its differences with the local RSS unit before the election, but Velingkar has ruled out a truce. Senior BJP leader and Union minister Nitin Gadkari has been given charge of the election.
For the BJP, the way out of the woods lies in hope and a bit of luck. Two factors need to come together. The alliance with the MGP should hold. A BJP-MGP combination will nullify the threat of BBSM to some extent.
Sudin Dhavalikar, the MGP’s defacto supremo may back the BBSM on the issue of grants, but shouldn’t insist on the BJP making an announcement of withdrawing grants to English schools, before the elections.
Politics does make strange bedfellows. But it also makes enemies of friends. Velingkar and Parrikar may still meet each other for Ganesh Chaturthi but by the time the Lord returns next year, both of them could be looking at very different political landscape.
