Abusive troll Swati Chaturvedi who also claims to be a journalist wrote an article on NDTV in February, which claimed that personnel changes could be made within the RSS to help PM Modi. As per the article, a huge organisational shakeup could happen in the RSS by March end, which was critical for the Lok Sabha polls.
One of the claims regarding these “changes” was that with RSS’ second in command Suresh Joshi’s term coming to end in March, he was likely to be replaced by Dattatreya Hosabale who is supposed to be close to PM Modi.
In the resultant analysis, the abusive troll claimed that the implications of this change would be “huge” for RSS and the BJP. One such claim made was that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Suresh Joshi share the view that RSS cannot play second fiddle to the BJP, but if Hosabale became the second in command then the balance of power will skew towards PM Modi. The author even alleged that Hosabale has risen meteorically through the ranks after Modi became PM.
The article later quoted an anonymous RSS source to claim that if the power shift happened then Modi would become the most powerful functionary in the Sangh Parivar. This relationship between Modi and Hosabale as per the article was causing some “disquiet” between Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh.
This claim that Hosabale might be replacing Joshi was also peddled by leftist website Scroll, which claimed that the possibility of Hosabale’s elevation as the Sarkaryavah (General Secretary), was causing disquiet within the RSS. It alleged that Modi was trying to elevate Hosabale to reduce RSS’s influence over the BJP. It also claimed that Hosabale’s ascension was on route to be thwarted, but BJP’s solid performance in the North East tilted the scales in Modi’s favour.
As seen above, both the articles insinuated that all was not well between BJP and the RSS, with both the organisations being involved in a power struggle. The key component used to peddle this narrative was the strong possibility of Dattatreya Hosabale becoming the RSS’ second in command.
Unfortunately for them, these claims though have failed to stand the test of time as it has now been reported that Suresh Joshi has been reelected as RSS’ General Secretary or “Sarkaryavah” by the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, which is the organisation’s highest decision-making body.
The announcement of the same was made by the RSS’ communications-in-charge Manmohan Vaidya at a press conference. Joshi would now continue to hold this post for three more years.
So, in short, whatever power shifts, power struggles and manoeuvres the Scroll and abusive troll’s article spoke about, seem to have now been postponed for at least three years. This raises the question as to how did they end up claiming whatever they claimed and whether there was any hidden agenda behind making allegations of disquiet between the RSS and the BJP?
