RSS leader KN Govindacharya: Kejriwal sought my support for polls

RSS veteran and ideologue K N Govindacharya has said Arvind Kejriwal met him in Delhi just before the Assembly elections and sought his support. And earlier, on 6 July, 2011, it was decided at a meeting held at the office of Kejriwal's NGO, that groups supported by Ramdev, Anna Hazare, Kejriwal, Jayprakash Narayan's Loksatta or R K Mishra's Navbharat Party would not engage in competitive politics with one another. "Mudde samaan, manch alag," Govindacharya told The Economic Times in an interview.

He is also quoted as saying that amid several simultaneous political experiments, there is an important "generosity", where "scoring the goal is important" and those in supporting positions must pass the ball.

K N Govindacharya. Photo courtesy CNN-IBN

Apparently, Kejriwal's electoral plans were already in place by July 2011, says Govindacharya who knew the Delhi chief minister since 1996-1997. Even back then, the RSS leader saw felt Kejriwal could be a "means of politics", he says.

"It had been an idea that I have held dear for a long time, that there should be pressure on (political) status quo both from within and without – like a pair of tongs which holds a thing in place and a hammer which beats it into shape," he is quoted as having said.

Govindacharya had appeared at a rally in February 2011 with Subramaniam Swamy and Kejriwal.

He had also reportedly planned to float a parallel anti-corruption body with Swamy, called the Swabhimaan Aandolan. Reports had also suggested that Hindutva groups were, in 2011, creating a broad-based alliance with smaller groups such LokSatta (as well as Swamy's Janata Party that later joined the BJP) and the Rashtriya Krantikari Janata Party from Bihar to form an anti-corruption movement.

Calling it a radical situation that needed radical solutions, Govindacharya says people had lost faith in political parties, both those in the ruling parties and those in the opposition.

Describing the genesis of the Aam Aadmi Party in the India Against Corruption movement of Anna Hazare as part of a narrative including the widespread disappointment in politics and political parties, corruption, the movement against black money by Baba Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravishankar's call for a return to moral values -- all apolitical movements that saws huge popular support -- Govindacharya goes on to say Kejriwla's government may fail, but would be replaced by another experiment.