Modi’s 2025 RSS Visit in Nagpur: A Political Strategy or Mere Formality?

It was after a gap of 13 years that Narendra Modi visited the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Smruti Mandir in Nagpur on March 30—his first visit as Prime Minister. He visited the Reshimbagh complex on September 16, 2012, to pay tribute to former RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan. His last visit to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur’s Mahal area was on July 16, 2013, when he was the BJP’s prime ministerial face for the Lok Sabha election that was held the following year.

Those two visits to Nagpur in the run-up to the 2014 parliamentary election were crucial since the RSS had decided to throw its weight behind Modi for the top job and work on the ground to help the BJP.

Modi’s visit to Nagpur on March 30, 2025, marks yet another important point in his association with the RSS as also the relationship between the BJP and the RSS, both having witnessed many ups and downs, especially in recent times. Modi is only the second Prime Minister after Atal Bihari Vajpayee to visit the RSS hub in Nagpur. The visit also came in a year when the RSS is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

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The visit to Reshimbagh was a homecoming of sorts for Modi since he had started out as a swayamsevak, having joined the RSS as a young man in the 1970s. He rose through the ranks, holding key positions in the BJP before making a significant transition in 2001—shifting from a backroom strategist to a leadership role—when he replaced Keshubhai Patel as Chief Minister of Gujarat.

An uneven association

Since then, Modi’s association with the RSS has been uneven. In the 2007 Assembly election in Gujarat, the RSS is believed to have stayed away from the campaign because the Sangh leadership was not comfortable with Modi’s own branding as a leader that overshadowed the right-wing establishment.

However, in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the RSS, whose strength had depleted during the 10-year rule of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, was keen on the BJP coming back to power. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat openly backed Modi as Prime Minister over more senior leaders in the BJP and described him as a friend. RSS cadres acted as a force multiplier for the saffron party in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019.

The RSS, however, is reportedly uncomfortable with the cult of Modi and his and Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s dominance in the party. For the RSS, the organisation and the larger goal have always been more important than any individual. Modi not visiting the RSS headquarters for 11 years after becoming Prime Minister is seen as a sign of the tension between him and the Sangh leadership. However, the RSS finds itself at a crossroads regarding Modi’s leadership. While it has been uneasy with his towering persona overshadowing the Hindutva establishment, he has been instrumental in realising key Sangh objectives, such as the abrogation of Article 370, the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, and progress towards a uniform civil code.

The RSS, however, is reportedly uncomfortable with the cult of Modi and his and Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s dominance in the party. For the RSS, the organisation and the larger goal have always been more important than any individual. Modi not visiting the RSS headquarters for 11 years after becoming Prime Minister is seen a sign of the tension between him and the Sangh leadership.

In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the tension between Modi and the RSS leadership, as also the gap between the BJP and the Sangh, was all too apparent. The RSS is learnt to have not invested its entire might in the election campaign. BJP president J.P. Nadda had made the shocking claim during the Lok Sabha election that the BJP was capable of managing its own affairs and said the RSS was only an “ideological front”.

“In the beginning, we were less capable, smaller, and needed the RSS. Today, we have grown and we are capable. The BJP runs itself. That’s the difference,” Nadda had said in an interview (The Indian Express, May 27, 2024).

Post-election blues

There was a severe blowback from the RSS after the election results were declared and the BJP ended up with 240 seats, 32 short of the majority mark. In June 2024, Bhagwat said a true “sevak” (servant of the people) never develops “ahankar” (arrogance). In July 2024, he said: “Men aim to become supermen, then devtas or deities, then Bhagwan or god, and then vishwaroop or omnipresent. Instead of having such aspirations, people should work towards the welfare of humanity.” This was widely seen as a censure of Modi’s comments in an interview that his birth was “non-biological” and that “God has sent me here”.

Since then, efforts have been made by both the sides to bridge the gap, which have culminated in Modi’s visit to the RSS headquarters. According to Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, political expert and writer, the visit to Nagpur underscores the mutual dependence of Modi and the RSS. “Modi has realised that he can no longer win elections on his own. The RSS also realises that as of now they cannot get another chosen one and continue to have the kind of political hegemony that they have over society at the moment,” said Mukhopadhyay, who has authored the book Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times. (Tranquebar Press, 2013).

According to Manindra Nath Thakur, an associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University: “A process of reconciliation has taken place over the last several months in the wake of the Lok Sabha poll debacle. It became clear that Modi and the BJP cannot win elections without the RSS. If the RSS is not active on the ground, only the cadre vote comes in. In the Assembly elections in Delhi, for example, the RSS cadre was hyper-active and that made a big difference for the BJP.”

When the BJP-led Union government lifted the ban on government officials associating with the RSS in July 2024, the move was seen as an overture to the Sangh. The BJP’s victories in the Assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Delhi were credited by party leaders to the active involvement of RSS cadres in the campaign. In a podcast with the AI researcher Lex Fridman recently, Modi was effusive in his praise of the RSS. He said the RSS gave him the purpose of his life. “One must make an effort to truly grasp the nature of its [the RSS’] work. More than anything, the RSS provides you with a clear direction toward what can truly be called a purpose in life. Secondly, the nation is everything, and serving the people is akin to serving God,” he said.

Modi’s Nagpur visit is seen as symbolising his party’s acknowledgement of the RSS’ role in the BJP’s politics even as it is a gesture made by Modi at an individual level to smoothen ruffled feathers in Nagpur. The visit also comes at a time when the BJP is in the process of selecting a new party president, and the RSS is expected to have a say in the selection. The decision has proved to be elusive, and Nadda has been on a prolonged extension.

“The closure of the 15-month-long narrative that began in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections would be the selection of the new party president. It has to be somebody acceptable to both the camps,” Mukhopadhyay said.

During Modi’s Nagpur visit, the bonhomie between Modi and Bhagwat was unmistakable as they shared the stage. Addressing a function at the RSS-run Madhav Netralaya Premium Centre, Modi referred to the 100th anniversary of the Sangh, saying: “The seeds sown hundred years ago have flourished into a vatvruksha [banyan tree]. The lakhs of swayamsevaks are its stems and branches. It is not an ordinary banyan tree. It is an embodiment of India’s cultural nationalism and modernisation. It gives energy to national consciousness.”

Bhagwat emphasised how Modi’s visit was happening on the auspicious occasion of the Hindu new year. “There are many auspicious things today. It’s the Hindu new year, the birthday of doctor saheb, this hospital is named after the second sarsanghchalak [Madhav Golwalkar], and the Prime Minister’s presence.” And since Modi was scheduled to speak after him, Bhagwat said: “I won’t stand between you and the PM because today I am also eager to listen to him.”

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The political analyst Sajjan Kumar Singh, however, believes Modi’s visit to Nagpur is nothing out of the ordinary and must be seen in the context of the Sangh’s centenary year celebrations. “When you look at the differences between the RSS and the BJP, these have been there in the past, too. They are two mammoth organisations which work together, complement each other, and it is natural for them to have differences. There were differences over certain operational issues between Vajpayee as Prime Minister and the then RSS chief, K.S. Sudarshan,” Singh said.

According to Singh, what actually stands out in Modi’s Nagpur visit is that after visiting Smruti Mandir, he went to Deekshabhoomi, where B.R. Ambedkar had embraced Buddhism. “In the last 11 years, Modi has made a consistent effort to bring about a fusion of the Hindutva discourse with the Dalit discourse and develop what can be described as subaltern Hindutva. Certainly, if Modi would have limited his visit to just Smruti Mandir and not gone to Deekshabhoomi, it would have raised difficult questions for him,” Singh said.

As Thakur explained, there is a dilemma within the BJP on whether it should be a more centrist party and occupy the space vacated by the Congress or whether it should continue to be a Hindu majoritarian party. “There are sections the BJP cannot reach with its Hindu majoritarian image. It has tried to develop a centrist image and has talked about Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas,” he said. Like the stopover at Deekshabhoomi, in the lead-up to Eid, Baisakhi, and Easter, Modi came up with the idea to distribute 32 lakh “Saugat-E-Modi” kits to economically backward minority community members across the country. As the BJP continues its efforts to become the party for all people, Modi’s visit to Nagpur creates great interest for more reasons than one.