From laudatory to adulatory! This is how Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi’s endeavour to keep the RSS chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat in good humour can be described, from his 15 August 2025 Independence Day speech to his penned article on the occasion of the latter’s 75th birthday on 11 September 2025, praising the RSS and its chief.
This transformation has to be viewed and analysed in the backdrop of BJP chief, Mr J. P. Nadda’s controversial interview in a national daily (Indian Express) on 22 May 2024, stating that the party was now self-reliant and self-sufficient, and did not require RSS support any more. His statement, which came as a surprise, had angered the RSS top brass and pushed the BJP president’s office to the throes of controversy. Ever since, the selection of a new party chief to replace Mr Nadda, who is on a long extension following completion of his tenure, has been embroiled in controversy, with the RSS adopting a hard line on the selection of a prospective candidate of its own choice.
Since Mr Modi had launched BJP’s Kamraj plan after becoming Prime Minister in 2014, fixing 75 as the retirement age for political leaders of eminence, and a decade later Dr Bhagwat endorsed the same as a reminder to the former (though impliedly), only to later backtrack, the proposition has generated interest as both Mr Modi and Dr Bhagwat were approaching the 75-year deadline at the same time. 11 September and 17 September 2025 were the two dates being keenly observed worldwide, as both leaders were then supposed to have crossed the Rubicon. While Dr Bhagwat had quoted his former RSS ideologue, Mr More Pant Pingle, to remind where it was meant for, that people in public life should take a break on touching the 75-year threshold, it was Mr Modi who had authored the ‘Margdarshak Mandal’, a platform for BJP leaders attaining the age of 75 to go on an indefinite sabbatical. Ever since, it was in the domain of speculation who of the two would blink on this issue first, as both were fast approaching the age of 75. In some way, Dr Bhagwat had lowered the temperature, apparently due to some backdoor efforts, with a clarification on his remark a month after he had observed that the 75-year deadline was not prescribed for people holding constitutional offices. The obvious reference was to Mr Modi. However, a much bigger surprise, and a huge blink-first, happened on Dr Bhagwat’s birthday. A signed article by Mr Modi that appeared in newspapers across the country on the morning of 11 September 2025, with wholesome praise of the RSS chief and tracing his links with the RSS chief’s family, particularly his father, came as a big surprise, thereby giving rise to many questions. The style, tone and tenor of the piece marked a major shift from the now familiar dominant style of Mr Modi’s functioning ever since he became the Prime Minister: stick to your guns, never budge an inch, and more importantly, victory on his own terms.
Since the BJP is the political arm of the RSS and keeps a full tab on the party’s functioning through point-men appointed both at national and state levels, the Modi-Bhagwat “Come September” bout, in the light of the PM’s article, has unravelled a strong element of political slugfest going on in the top echelons.
It just cannot escape political scrutiny whether the piece is an overture and attempt to mollify the RSS by Mr Modi to continue as Prime Minister beyond 17 September, when he will celebrate his 75th birthday. And also, whether this could soften the RSS into permitting the Modi-Amit Shah powerful duo to have a party president of their own choice.
If the article reflects an index of Mr Modi’s mind, it seems to have undergone a significant change. As much as one wishes to avoid it, the situation compels the raising of a question: is it a pointer to the ruling dispensation being on a shaky wicket in view of the coming crucial Bihar elections and the dependence of the Modi government for survival on shrewd allies such as TDP chief Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu and JD(U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Mr Nitish Kumar? There is no doubt that some of the previous RSS chiefs were of much bigger stature than Dr Bhagwat, who had to look up to and match political stalwarts such as Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr L. K. Advani. The RSS under that set-up had its full say but could never overrule the political thought process of the Vajpayee era. And even the more amenable ‘rath yatri’ of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, Mr Advani, at times, tried to steer clear of the RSS shadow, though in vain.
This equation had totally changed after Mr Modi became Prime Minister in May 2014, to emerge as a powerful leader with a strong background as a thoroughbred RSS pracharak. Ever since, he has lived up to this image of a dominant leader, who many a time gave an impression of overshadowing even the RSS.
Dr Bhagwat seemed to be playing second fiddle till the 2024 Lok Sabha election, wherein the BJP failed to secure even a simple majority. This dealt a blow to the invincible image of Mr Modi as a strongman. As both Dr Bhagwat and Mr Modi were heading towards their 75th birthday in the same month of the current year, a ping-pong battle ensued between the two sides. Mr Modi’s gift to the RSS chief on his birthday, and a week before the former entering his 75th year, has come as an interesting twist in the Bhagwat-Modi saga.
Extracting wholesome words of eulogy out of Mr Modi is no mean achievement from the RSS perspective. Not a self-effacing personality, who loves to hog the limelight and is not given to praising anyone other than himself, it has certainly come as a shot in Dr Bhagwat’s arm. The low-profile RSS chief suddenly seems to have come out of Mr Modi’s towering shadow, and this change in perception (on Mr Modi’s part) is a pointer towards an emerging new equation in the RSS-Modi relationship.
Can it have more serious ramifications for the Modi government and BJP’s organisation set-up? A perception had been created since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and successive electoral successes of the BJP under Mr Modi’s stewardship, that it was the RSS which needed Modi more than vice versa — and which used to be the case in the past. The battle over reaching the 75th birthday finishing line, and continuing thereafter, has seemingly reversed this process to its original form.