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LUCKNOW: The BJP national council on Saturday amended the party constitution to give more powers to the president and clear the way for the induction of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh `pracharaks' (propagandists) in positions that would give them control of the party machine.

The key positions of secretaries at the national, State and district levels would be given to only whole-time party workers (euphemism for RSS `pracharaks') who would not contest any elective post or have any political ambition. The entire exercise, it seems, is to ensure the primacy of the party organisation over its government or legislative wing, as obtaining in the communist parties, an idea favoured by the RSS for many years but not implemented.

The move is meant to prevent a recurrence of the situation that existed from 1998 to 2004 when the BJP, in power at the Centre, ran rough shod over RSS priorities on issues such as a Ram temple at Ayodhya and even `swadeshi' economics.

The change was made some time ago after the party's defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha election and its decision to go "back to basics." But now the arrangement has been formalised.

Already four senior RSS `pracharaks' have been "loaned" to the BJP for work in Uttar Pradesh. Now it seems many more are to be sent to work in the BJP.

This would automatically mean RSS control over the party organisation and the dissemination of the Sangh ideology.

The resolution for the amendment was moved by senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu and approved unanimously by a show of hands at the council meeting here.

The positions of zonal `pracharaks' have been formalised; the State unit presidents will have to take the approval of national president Rajnath Singh before appointing organisation secretaries, and district level units will have to seek the State presidents' permission before appointing district level secretaries.

To ensure that these secretaries do not take orders from party leaders in government — wherever the BJP is in power — Mr. Naidu made it clear that "they would have nothing to do with government functioning."

One of their functions would be to ensure "harmony" and "cooperation" with the various frontal organisations of the RSS such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, he said.

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