Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 26 February 2018 | Page 20
SAFFRON SURGE
Photographs: SANDIPAN CHATTERJEE
FROM BUD
TO FLOWER
BJP’s foray into poll-bound Tripura baffles the ruling Left and dwarfs Congress
by Bhavna Vij-Aurora in Agartala
T
HERE are no signboards show-
ing the way to Sewa Dham, the
state headquarters of the Rash-
triya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
about 15 km outside Agartala.
An almost unnoticeable cut on
the road and a short drive through
mounds of dust lead you to the office of
the right-wing volunteer organisa-
tion—in Purba Champamura village of
Khayerpur locality.
Local people say there was an un-tarred
road to the Sangh headquarters—and it
was dug up in last December ahead of a
visit by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. The
67-year-old sarsanghchalak stayed there
for three days, and said that all people
living in India are Hindus. “We don’t
know who dug it up, but it was done
overnight,” recalls Sudipta Das, a resi-
dent. “We heard that CPI(M) cadres did
it. Only the state machinery could have
been so quick. There were deep pits that
make entry and exit from Sewa Dham
almost impossible.”
Immediately after, RSS men, including
local boys and tribals, tried to fill the pits.
That worsened a brutal battle between
20 OUTLOOK 26 February 2018
the RSS and workers of the ruling CPI(M). MELA MOOD Flags of BJP and
Finally, earthmovers came in. “We heard CPI(M) deck up a street of Agartala
that Delhi (central government) arran
ged for the equipment and people from elections drawing closer, most of them
NBCC (a Navratna PSU) came to do it,” have spread out. They are busy working
Das adds. The entry and exit from Sewa for the victory of the BJP—the political
Sham was made possible, but the road party in the Sangh parivar.
The shakha at Sewa Dham is one of the
has still not been restored.
A shakha was in progress at Sewa Dham 350 which run on a regular basis in
around 6.30 in the morning. With huge Tripura that goes to the polls on February
portraits of Swami Vivekananda and M.S. 18. Till the last assembly elections in
Golwalkar overseeing, a dozen boys go 2013, the RSS’s presence was limited to
about their usual drill. Aged between 10 about 100 villages, and the BJP vote-
and 18, they unfurl the saffron flag, do share was a meagre 1.54 per cent. Rajesh
physical exercises, render the Ekatmata Deshkar, RSS sewa pramukh for the
stotra (in Bangla) and take the Namaste seven Northeastern states and in charge
sada vatsale pledge for a Hindu rashtra of the conduct of the shakha at Sewa
before following it up with the three-step Dham, doesn’t want to relate the growth
RSS salute. The flag is then ceremoni- of the BJP in Tripura to that of the Sangh.
ously folded back, as the boys march “Society is changing; so are its expecta-
away. Usually there are more partici- tions. This change is responsible for the
pants in the shakha, but with assembly rise of the BJP in different parts of the
country. And it is because of the political
change that people want to understand
the Sangh better and are coming to the
From zero presence to
being the Left’s only rival shakhas in larger numbers,” says Desh
kar, originally from Nagpur, but working
has not come easy for
as a pracharak in the Northeast for 30
the BJP, which built up
years. It is high time, he adds, the region
woke up to the BJP and considered itself
its cadre brick by brick.