For Battles in New Media, RSS Readies its Intellectual Warriors

Everything, including the sitting arrangement, was meticulously planned and executed to a tee. A brocaded shamiana was pegged well outside the main compound to keep prying journalists at bay. It doubled up as media centre and reception lounge for participating delegates. 

The RSS was holding its annual national executive meet in Ranchi amidst the growing chorus of 'intolerance' just ahead of the Bihar polls last year. As joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosebole took stage to address the inaugural press conference, a man in off-white sarong and bush shirt in-conspicuously walked up and took seat amongst journalists.

"Ye asahashunta ka nanga naach chal raha hai"; Hosebole thundered. Dr. Manmohan Vaidya, RSS media in-charge sitting on Hosebole's right nodded in agreement. The man in off-white sarong scribbled furiously on his notepad.

On discreet queries, I was told that the gentleman's name was J Nandakumar. That he was a senior pracharak from Kerala, and that he was currently posted to Bhopal.

"Watch out. He is being drafted for a larger role at the national level"; sources indicated.

In these nine months, Nandakumar has shifted base to Delhi, he's deputy to RSS Prachar Pramukh Manmohan Vaidya; and is handling an interesting assignment for the sangh.

His workstation now is one of those ubiquitous Lutyens-Delhi's prefab structures tucked away at the back of impressive facades. Meeting in the small conference room adjacent to his modest office, over a cup of herbal tea we discuss a host of issues - from JNU to BJP's performance in recently concluded assembly polls in his home state.

"What we witnessed during the JNU drama is nothing but the derisive rhetoric of divisive politics"; he says.

But did the RSS feel it couldn't somehow effectively counter this rhetoric- if one may call it that- during the intolerance debate and Rohith Vemula episode, followed by the JNU standoff?

Nandakumar wouldn't accept that in as many words, but yes, there persists a nagging recognition within the RSS that the Left liberals still have enough in their repertoire to influence public discourse to their advantage.

They know when and how to raise the pitch - and perhaps most importantly - when and how to make a tactical retreat to survive and fight another day. For instance, the award-vaapasi campaign melted away after achieving a strategic purpose. "Even on the JNU row, we created a hero out of Kanhaiya Kumar by launching an all-out attack on a non-descript student union leader," admitted a senior RSS leader in retrospect.

So despite a pracharak now heading the first full majority single party government at the centre, the RSS is yet to conquer the last frontier in this ideological battle - the intellectual mind space. The challenge thus is to create its own set of 'intellectual warriors' or even reach and start a dialogue with those who are seemingly neutral across the sharp divide.

Influencing these influencers or opinion makers who in turn trigger debates and dialogue among masses at large is thus of critical importance.

As a first step, the RSS has opened up and increased its interaction with 'influencers' hitherto hemmed by impermeable ideological fencing. Opinion makers - from all walks of life are increasingly being invited for important functions in Nagpur and elsewhere. Two senior editors, one from Delhi and the other from West Bengal were present at the valedictory function of the RSS third year training programe in Nagpur last month. Towards this end, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has also been meeting important dignitaries and influencers during his travels after the annual Vijayadashmi speech.

But communication wars now are increasingly fought on digital platforms. This transformed hybrid media environment requires entirely different skill sets and communication techniques where often the timing of a response could be the difference between success and failure. In this context, it helps to have on your side key opinion makers embedded in the maze of a complex media matrix.

So as a long-term plan, as RSS is quietly preparing for a sustained fight for the mind space, its operations on this front are now being coordinated from Delhi- the national capital being the nerve-centre of the political activity.

That perhaps also explains Nandakumar's transfer to Delhi to from Bhopal.