Mohabbat ki dukaan effect? Why RSS wants a meeting with Rahul Gandhi

In a strange turn of events, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) has invited the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, for talks. This despite sharp political and ideological differences between the two.

Even more strangely, the invite was dished out in a casual manner, in the presence of, and via, media persons.

The second most-senior RSS leader, Dattatreya Hosabale, 'extended' this invitation on October 26. Responding to reporters’ queries at the end of a two-day RSS event in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh he quipped: “We invite all, even Rahul Gandhi, to come and talk to us.”

Watch | What transpired at Yogi's hours-long meeting with Mohan Bhagwat? 

Rahul and RSS

The Congress has not reacted to Hosabale’s move. Nor is the party likely to do so or at the least open up on this any time soon.

It is simply because the invite is not only unseemly but also quite at odds with Rahul’s avowed stand against the RSS. The idea behind the gesture may well be to put Rahul in a tight spot in case he is to oblige the RSS.

Rahul has consistently opposed the virtual wellspring of the far-right ideas that the RSS is. This has been so with Rahul since or even before he took to active politics — two decades ago.

What is behind RSS move

Yet, in between, Rahul has said that he wants to win over the other school of thought with love rather than confronting and challenging its sectarian politics again with similar hate and aversion.

Also read | BJP, RSS go all out to win back SC-ST-OBC votes in Maharashtra polls

Hosabale might well have had this in mind when he spoke about Rahul. The RSS leader obliquely pointed out the penchant “among some to talk of love” but avoid engaging with the RSS.

Nonetheless, Rahul has for long been wary of the RSS. So, Hosabale couldn’t have missed Rahul’s call first made during his Bharat Jodo Yatra, often repeated, to open mohabbat ki dukaan ('outlet of love') amid nafrat (hate) burgeoning into a virtual bazaar. Not just Rahul’s call but it is its appeal that seems to bother the RSS more because it often finds itself to be Rahul’s target.

The Lok Sabha shock

Thus, the informal invitation for talks to Rahul could well be guided by the desire to undo some of the loss of image suffered by the RSS and its ideological offshoot in politics, the BJP. The results of the last Lok Sabha polls saw the BJP’s tally getting reduced to 240 from 303 in 2019.

Rahul had called this a moral victory for the Opposition. In the wake of the electoral reversal, the BJP and the RSS had a tiff.

Hosabale, in his October 26 rendezvous with the media, dismissed this as a 'normal' fraternal or family issue between the two organisations.

Safety valve for RSS?

Significantly, all these remarks are being made amid the thick of elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand where, among others, Rahul is expected to campaign vigorously.

Also read | RSS believes some states, languages, religions, are inferior: Rahul in US

His brand of politics that he discovered during his first Bharat Jodo Yatra is going to be tested once again during these polls.

The offer to meet and talk to Rahul could serve as a safety valve ahead of what could well turn out to be explosive poll-time claims, as the Congress leader begins campaigning in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

A new, confident Rahul

What is more important is the consistency and sincerity of purpose Rahul has been showing in politics. Before that Rahul was thought to be an off-and-on player in public life, and the Sangh’s ecosystem loathed him for this more than his other critics. But then he added ‘love’ to India’s political lexicon.

Rahul can no longer be dismissed as easily.

Also read: How a blazing Rahul had Modi govt on the mat in his debut as LoP

The Sangh is widely believed to have been against or unimpressed by Mahatma Gandhi through his lifetime and until recently. The RSS took a lot of time to somewhat soften towards the Mahatma. So, to expect the BJP and RSS to be kinder to Rahul is a bit too much.

Seen in this context, Hosabale’s visibly causal, even unsure invite to Rahul, nevertheless, looks like an attempt by the RSS to cover cushion the blow before Rahul’s pitch for love starts gaining more traction among the masses.