Sunil Gatade | Slippery @75: How BJP, RSS Rewrite ‘Exit Rules’

The landmark age of 75 has become a deadly word in the BJP scheme of things since the emergence of Narendra Modi on the national scene way back in May 2014.

With Mr Modi becoming the Prime Minister, the doctrine of retirement at 75 was invented and invoked in what was being suggested to rid the party of deadwood. It was also to show that the party has come a long way from the days of Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani.

Just like the tagline of Dhirubhai Ambani’s “Vimal” brand- that a woman expresses herself in many ways, and “Vimal” is just one of them -- so was the new leader’s not-so-veiled directive: “The way to the retirement home comes at 75”.

Veteran leaders like L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar and B.C. Khanduri all fell by the wayside, with the RSS allowing, or being forced to allow, a personality cult that had led to victory at the hustings. The BJP had secured a majority on its own, without allies, for the first time under Mr Modi.

While the retirement home was pompously named “Margdarshak Mandal”,

the fact that the “mandal” never met meant it was nothing more than being sent into oblivion.

Racehorses are put to sleep after their days of glory; in politics, there is no physical annihilation. It is after all not Stalin’s Soviet Union, or so is the suggestion.

But the physical presence still means all is pitch dark and there is an eerie silence. Only you know that you exist.

In a way it meant that since a new leader has emerged, he will come with his own team, and therefore the seniors should make way. If they failed to do so voluntarily, they will still be felled. A rule is a rule, and there is no exception. A Yashwant Sinha might well ask: How can there be a “brain rot” at 75?

In September 2025, Mr Modi himself is completing 75 years, and so there is much talk and speculation on what comes next? The fact is that in the political game, the rules of retirement never apply to the top leader, irrespective of political parties. The leader sets the rules for others for his benefit.

In this context, Mr Modi’s first visit to the RSS headquarters last month, after nearly 11 long years at the helm, speaks volumes. It indicates that Nagpur has belatedly gained importance and is no longer in the doghouse, as was being speculated earlier.

The much-talked-about visit does not signal that Mr Modi is in full command like in the previous two terms. Politics is a game of signals and gestures, as no one says anything but tells all with their actions.

In January last year, RSS supremo almost appeared to be a sidekick of Mr Modi at the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, an occasion that was fully exploited by the PM to secure a third term.

However, in Nagpur, the picture was different. The RSS chief was on home ground, receiving the PM as an equal, if not a superior. The fact that a strong leader suddenly remembered his umbilical cord with Nagpur was not lost on all and sundry in the political space.

Mr Modi’s failure to secure an absolute majority in the May 2024 elections made all the difference. Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the talk in political circles was that the RSS chief could become the most vulnerable person in the ruling side if Mr Modi created a hat trick to secure a majority for the BJP.

But fate willed otherwise, giving more than a bit of strength to Mr Bhagwat.

This, however, doesn’t mean that Mr Modi has lost totally. The PM’s credibility is much higher than any other leader in the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. Since his Gujarat days, Mr Modi knows which side his bread is buttered. He has obliged a lot during his 10-year tenure as PM, including those in the Sangh Parivar. During his Gujarat days, the RSS in the state had virtually become the “Modi RSS”.

At the same time, the RSS has not sent known “Modi baiters” like Sanjay Joshi, a powerful BJP leader in the pre-Modi era, to the wilderness. It is equally true he has not been heard much since the advent of Mr Modi.

The beauty of the 2024 Lok Sabha verdict for the RSS is that it has again got the much-needed space to influence the BJP’s affairs. J.P. Nadda’s blunt talk during the Lok Sabha campaign that the BJP no longer needs the RSS for election work was aimed at restricting the influence of the Sangh, and advising it to be limited to the field of ideology. Mr Nadda is known more as a “yes man” of Mr Modi than as the BJP president.

That was bound to have ruffled feathers, and Mr Bhagwat’s off-and-on advice to the BJP after the Lok Sabha polls reflects that the RSS can’t be sidelined or ignored. It is common knowledge that RSS volunteers had worked very hard during the Assembly polls in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Delhi.

The talk of “After Modi, who?” following the Nagpur visit is itself symptomatic that the strong leader is not that strong. Devendra Fadnavis may have dismissed the talk of a new leader in place of Mr Modi by insisting that “you don’t retire your father”. Facts speak otherwise. Over a decade ago, Mr Advani was the father figure, and the views and opinions of the anguished leader were overlooked totally, completely, and wholly, as if he did not exist.

Even if one assumes that the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut doesn’t know what is happening inside the BJP and RSS, the fact that Mr Modi visited Nagpur shows his candid admission that his policy of “my way or the highway” has been punctured.

Politics is a different ballgame, and to think that the BJP has only one leader and the rest are just robots in service of the leader is laughable.

Everyone bides his time and does not show ambition in this game. They are political persons. Even Manmohan Singh was a political person; otherwise, he would have never become the PM.

The days and months ahead will show how much slipperier “75” is. One can’t remain at the top of Everest for long; it’s a fact of life. Till then, the show of “Tiger Abhi Zinda Hai” will be on.

The writer is a journalist based in New Delhi