The Strategy Behind Arvind Kejriwal's 5 Questions to RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat

It's an attempt to kill two birds with one stone.

Arvind Kejriwal has posed 5 questions to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. 

(Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

Arvind Kejriwal's approach towards the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is unlike any other Opposition leader. The Aam Aadmi Party convenor's five questions to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat are a proof of this.

AAP insiders say that Kejriwal's questions are "Ek teer se do nishaan (killing two birds with one stone)". But it is also politically risky. So what are these questions? What's Kejriwal trying to achieve? And what makes him different from rest of the Opposition?

Let's answer some of these questions.

What are Kejriwal's 5 Questions to Mohan Bhagwat?

These are the five questions that Kejriwal posed for the RSS chief at a rally in Jantar Mantar on Sunday:

• The way PM Narendra Modi is using ED, CBI to break opposition parties and governments and getting them to join BJP, is this good for the nation?

• Modi ji has included all the corrupt people in his party? Do you agree with this kind of politics? Is this what you had imagined for the BJP?

• BJP is born out of the RSS' womb. It is the RSS' responsibility to ensure that the BJP doesn't go on the wrong path. Did you advise the BJP against pursuing such policies?

• JP Nadda said during the Lok Sabha polls that BJP does not need support from RSS now. I want to ask Bhagwat ji, how did you feel when Nadda gave this statement?

• RSS and BJP established the 75 years retirement age rule. This was used to retire senior BJP leaders like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalraj Mishra, BC Khanduri etc. Now Amit Shah says that the rule doesn't apply to Modi ji. Do you agree with this?

Why Are These Questions Important?

Kejriwal's attack on Mohan Bhagwat come at time when a number of huge developments have taken place in AAP: Manish Sisodia came out on bail in August, Kejriwal came out in September and resigned as CM soon after. Atishi has now taken over as the CM. And all this has happened barely five months before the Delhi Assembly Elections are scheduled to take place.

Another development that happened amidst all this is the breakdown of alliance talks between Congress and AAP for the Haryana elections.

What's Kejriwal's strategy?

The change in political equations after the Lok Sabha elections has made the situation fluid for AAP.

On one hand, there is the BJP which is trying to compensate for its reduced political capital by doubling down on its aggression. Especially in Delhi, it senses an opportunity of ending its over 25-year long exile at the Assembly level. It has swept all 7 Lok Sabha seats for the third time in a row.

On the other hand, there is a resurgent Congress which is witnessing a revival nationally, having almost doubled its tally in the Lok Sabha.

There is a sense in AAP that the two national parties are out to squeeze it.

Kejriwal's questions to Bhagwat are an attempt to fight back against this. By attacking the RSS, he wants to stake claim to the Opposition space. So far, it is Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge who have owned the ideological space of firm Opposition to the RSS.

However, his questions also seek to drive a wedge between the RSS and BJP.

At the Assembly level in Delhi, AAP's success over the last decade stems from the manner in which it has appealed to sections which support the BJP at the national level as well as those which support the Congress.

Eventually, this is the AAP's national aim as well.

What Makes Kejriwal's Approach Towards RSS Different?

Kejriwal's attacks on the RSS are different from the attacks by other Opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, MK Stalin, Asaduddin Owaisi or the Left, all of whom criticise the RSS from the prism of secularism and/or social justice.

Unlike the above leaders, Kejriwal's attacks don't come from a position of ideological opposition. In fact in his speech, Kejriwal made it a point to emphasise that he is asking the RSS chief with "utmost respect" and stresses that the RSS believes in nationalism.

His entire argument is that it is the BJP that has failed the ideals of the RSS. There is no ideological criticism of the RSS itself.

For better or worse, Kejriwal is the only politician in the Opposition who is trying to reach out to the RSS, even if it may be for tactical reasons. His questions are almost a request to the RSS to think beyond the BJP, or at least beyond PM Modi and Amit Shah.

This is not the first time that Kejriwal has pursued this argument. Even in the Lok Sabha election campaign, he made a statement that Modi and Shah want to remove UP CM Yogi Adityanath.

"Leaders like Rahul Gandhi and (MK) Stalin push RSS to close ranks with BJP. Kejriwal is pushing for a different approach," an AAP leader told The Quint.

What's the Risk?

Relations between the BJP and RSS aren't perfect at present. Nadda's statement during the Lok Sabha elections did create the perception that RSS didn't campaign for the BJP to the extent that they could have.

Kejriwal is one of the few Opposition leaders who is trying to exploit the internal dynamics between the BJP and RSS as well as the churn within the BJP itself, especially the sidelining of the old guard.

It remains to be seen whether this will be successful or not.

Despite its discomfort with the personality cult around PM Modi, RSS has restricted its criticism to the occasional cryptic remark by the Sarsanghchalak or an editorial or two in Organiser or Panchajanya. And even in these cases, the criticism is almost always couched in "constructive" terms.

Barring one or two Assembly elections, RSS has almost always backed the BJP in the past 10 years. Even these elections were in particular circumstances, such as the 2017 Punjab elections in which elements within the RSS backed the Congress or the 2020 Bihar elections in which some functionaries tactically backed Chirag Paswan's LJP in seats not being contested by the BJP.

A large scale, top-down distancing of the RSS from the BJP that Kejriwal is urging in his questions to Mohan Bhagwat, may not be possible.

The other risk for AAP is the prospect of alienating minorities and other sections opposed to Hindutva, if it is seen as making overtures to the RSS.

In the 2023 MCD elections, AAP lost a sizable chunk of Muslim votes in areas like Okhla and Northeast Delhi to the Congress. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Punjab, a section of Sikh and Dalit voters who backed AAP in the Assembly elections shifted to the Congress and Independents.

It is high-risk strategy that Kejriwal is pursuing, but one which only a leader with his kind of ideological flexibility may be able to attempt.