LYING LOW: It may be another year before Govindacharya resurfaces

Hosting the comeback of a controversy-riddled K.N. Govindacharya was a compelling idea, and Mahesh Sharma was more than willing to oblige. So the chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission invited his erstwhile Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad colleague to his January 14 house-warming ceremony in Delhi. On January 13, however, the lunch was cancelled after RSS spokesman M.G. Vaidya announced the removal of Govindacharya as pracharak. But an unperturbed Govindacharya kept his date with rehabilitation, surfacing at the residence of Varanasi BJP MP Shankar Prasad Jaiswal. He had operated from Jaiswal's home before his self-imposed six-month exile last year.

After being dropped as a BJP national office-bearer in September 2000 and when he went into exile, Govindacharya's detractors were busy signing his political obituary. But staunch friends in the abvp and Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) had other plans for him. After Sharma's party, Govindacharya was scheduled to participate in the SJM national executive at Agra, beginning January 17. The extent of RSS support can be gauged from the fact that deputy chief Madan Das Devi disassociated the Sangh from Vaidya's declaration. Govindacharya himself dubs it a "communication gap between the spokesman and the media", but has, in effect, ceased to be a pracharak since November 28, the day his exile ended, as he was no longer working for the Sangh.

The RSS allows the pracharaks to be on leave while assuming a "position of benefit" and they can resume their duties once their tenure ends. As a pracharak, Govindacharya's expenses were borne by the RSS, but having been drafted into the BJP from the RSS, the BJP too is under no obligation to bear his expenses now. So Govindacharya is currently at the mercy of the SJM leaders-most of whom are from the ABVP-who have agreed to cater to his daily needs. Of the 10,000 pracharaks ordained since the RSS' inception in 1931, over 7,000 have married or ceased being pracharaks. The remaining have been drafted into the Sangh's frontal and allied organisations. But Govindacharya doesn't seem to be in a mood to don the mantle of a pracharak again. "I have become used to the spartan lifestyle of a pracharak. Designations don't affect my work," he says. And having sensed a leadership not favourably disposed, he is opting out for now.

Govindacharya's fate seems to be linked to the tussle between hardliners, mostly former ABVP leaders, and moderates in the BJP and RSS, and continues to be the indicator of strength in the tussle between the RSS and Government. For three years now, the hardliners have been on the backfoot due to the prime minister's exalted status. The RSS may soon confront the Government again, but Govindacharya is likely to wait in the wings for at least another year.

-Sharad Gupta