Nagpur: The Malegaon blast probe may have given the Congress-led coalition ammo to hit out at the Hindutva brigade, and the BJP a ploy to re-invigorate its Hindutva agenda, but the entire episode has curiously thrown open the differences between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Hindu Mahasabha.
A Sangh insider believes a few fringe groups and individuals, who have fallen out with both the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, could be reviving the legacy of Veer Savarkar, who mooted the doctrine: "Militarise the Hindus and Hinduise the nation." He says few such groups and individuals, toeing the hard-line, may now be beyond the control of both the pro-Hindutva organisations.
But more importantly, Sangh watchers say, the historic differences between the two organisations have resurfaced dramatically and returned to haunt the RSS more severely than ever before in wake of the Malegaon blast case.
It's a fact that the Sangh always maintained a distance from Savarkar in pre- and post-independent India. While Sawarkar always pitched for a political role for the Hindu Mahasabha, Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, who founded the RSS, did not want the Sangh to engage politically. It was much later that the RSS formed Jan Sangh to steer its political agenda, even when Hindu Mahasabha did exist in the political sphere. But the doctrine and vision of both differed radically. Sangh insiders feel the aggressive Hindu groups and individuals sprawling across the country could also be fighting for a political space that the RSS once fought for with the Hindu Mahasabha.
Some sympathisers and volunteers within the RSS also want the Parivar to take an aggressive posture like the Hindu Mahasabha does on issues like terrorism.
