Why RSS May Want Amit Shah to Lose Bihar

'The Advani-Vajpayee years of leading the NDA coalition offer significant memories of how the duo outmanoeuvred the RSS and K Sudarshan, the then chief of the BJP's ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or RSS. Despite knowing Advani's ambition of becoming Prime Minister, the Sangh chose a man with a liberal face for the top job while Advani was left to play second fiddle; the RSS wanted the duality to exist for the sake of balancing its own power game.

But as I wrote in my own column in 2012 "Far from backing its first prime minister, the Sangh went out of its way to needle him. It consistently attacked Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary to the prime minister and one of the most trusted men in the Vajpayee camp. It wanted Mishra removed not because it thought he was a bad influence - though that may have been the stated reason - but because his departure would weaken Vajpayee, never mind what it did to the stability of the government in the Centre.

In fact, the RSS had no qualms in using the opportunity provided by Operation Westend - the TEHELKA sting operation that saw Bangaru Laxman, then BJP president, accepting a bribe - to slyly attack two top officials in the Vajpayee PMO: Mishra and NK Singh. The Sangh gave a free hand to the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) and its promoter, Chennai-based chartered accountant S Gurumurthy, to launch a full-scale attack on the Vajpayee PMO. Only when it realised that Gurumurthy had reduced the SJM to a proxy for fighting corporate battles did the Sangh distance itself from the Manch."

It is not very uncanny then that the Sangh Parivaar is playing almost a similar game, this time in Bihar, which seen as a do-or-die battle for Amit Shah, the BJP president. The election will also be a litmus test for Narendra Modi who has been facing heat for increasing religious intolerance allegedly perpetrated by his own party. At risk is also his good governance model which failed the test in the Delhi election in February this year. The Sangh Parivaar is allegedly upset with him for promoting himself as opposed to the party in India and internationally...'