Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s green signal to start agitations on Kashi and Mathura issues is a googly that can have a devastating effect on the established leadership in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).The green signal by the RSS at the lecture series of Bhagwat in the national capital to mark the centenary of the organisation, is bad news for Union home minister, Amit Shah.This is because the Kashi-Mathura issue could propel Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, known as the Hindutva poster boy, to the fore, sidelining others in the BJP aspiring for the prime minister’s post.For Prime Minister Modi, who is hailed as the Hindu Hruday Samrat, an agitation on the issue poses a catch-22 situation for him at a time when he is virtually under siege.“You are in a problem if you take it up, and you will face a problem if you do not take it up” is the thorny dilemma.However, Bhagwat making it clear that no one is asking anyone about to turn 75 to quit has been a reprieve for the PM who will be completing 75 on Sept 17 .Adityanath could be the natural beneficiary of the Kashi and Mathura issuesBhagwat’s remarks suggest that there has been a ceasefire between Modi-Shah and the RSS, but it does not mean a mending of fences. The Sangh may not be seeking the resignation of the PM, but it is a temporary reprieve. It does not mean ‘business as usual’ between Modi-Shah and the RSS.The signal to Swayamsevaks to start taking up the Mathura and Kashi issues meant that the Sangh wants Hindutva to become more aggressive. It implies that Modi-Shah, despite being in power for 11 long years, have been less enthusiastic to take up the cause vigorously.The RSS’s message to the PM is that the work of the Hindutva forces is not over with the consecration of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. The ‘cultural revolution’ of spreading the Hindutva thought should be pushed ahead, and the resurgence alone would help the BJP cause.This has happened at a time when Shah is considered the natural successor to the incumbent prime minister.What could prove a dampener is that Adityanath has already emerged as the darling of the Hindutva hardliners and an effective campaigner for the BJP, next only to Modi. In words and actions to promote religious polarisation, he is unparalleled. Though he is controversial too because of that.Adityanath could be the natural beneficiary of the Kashi and Mathura issues if they were taken up for giving momentum to the Hindutva resurgence.Adityanath is a sanyasi and belongs to the land of Ganga-Yamuna, the Hindi heartland, which has remained a fertile ground for Hindutva. So his chances are better to be more acceptable and natural than Shah or anyone else from Gujarat.In fact, the Hindutva hardliners see Adityanath as their future leader, given his felicity in communal polarisation, with slogans like ‘batenge to katenge’ and elections to be a match between ‘80 vs 20’.Though Bhagwat has not said so in so many words, his message for the BJP to sharpen its Hindutva to the core is more suited for the Adityanath , who is considered the potential Hindu Hruday Samrat.Shah’s growing role and influence in the party and the government at the instance of the PM, have already annoyed many in the BJP, who have been silent for years for obvious reasons.As against Adityanath, Shah looks like a satellite dependent on Modi, no matter the fact that he is the most formidable leader in the government and the party after the Prime Minister. From the Gujarat days when Shah was just a minister of state for home affairs under chief minister Modi to being the Union home minister, Shah’s boss has always been the PM, from whom he has derived his power.Adityanath has been his own boss since becoming chief minister some eight years ago, after being propelled to the centrestage in key Uttar Pradesh through the proddings of the RSS. He has survived through all the machinations from the foes and friends alike by the unstinted support of Nagpur.If Adityanath becomes the chief minister for the third time in 2027, the message will go around loud and clear on the leadership issue.RSS tolerated the personality cult till the time Modi was winning the elections hands downModi became Prime Minister when he moved to Uttar Pradesh and contested from Varanasi in May 2014. The rest is history.No doubt, Amit Shah was then the BJP General Secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, whose strategy helped the party gain the centrestage. It is an open secret that since Shah became the party chief replacing Rajnath Singh, a systematic attempt has been made to lessen the dependence and the influence on the RSS even as the BJP was declared as the world’s largest party.BJP President J.P. Nadda’s controversial statement in the midst of the last Lok Sabha elections had not come out of the blue. Nadda had said that the BJP was capable of fighting elections on its own and the RSS should focus on ideological issues. Everyone who is anyone in political circles knows that Nadda’s statement was not an off-the-cuff remark but had come at the prompting of someone high and mighty.Modi has brought the Hindutva to a certain level unparalleled in the history of independent India, but the Sangh leader is not satisfied in its range and spread and is advocating the ‘next level of reforms’ by taking up the Kashi and Mathura causes.As Mao advocated Cultural revolution which brought much tumult in the history of the Communist China regime, so does the advocacy of Kashi and Mathura, and its being taken up on a war footing is expected to create an upheaval.This is bound to worry Modi-Shah who have virtually sidelined the RSS till the last Lok Sabha election.One might recall that Bhagwat was shown as a secondary player at the consecration ceremony at Ayodhya in January last year.Modi likes to take the limelight fully and wholly to project that he is the Hindu Hruday Samrat as well as the strongest leader India has produced.RSS tolerated the personality cult till the time Modi was winning the elections hands down. Now, it wants to look ahead when Modi has failed to deliver. RSS never says anything in black and white and it’s signals need to be deciphered.Interestingly, the RSS, which was virtually put on silent mode in the first 10 years of the Modi government, is using the post Lok Sabha polls scenario to follow the ‘divide and rule’ policy within the BJP to gain an upper hand in the affairs of the world’s largest party.It should not be forgotten that 20 years back, L.K. Advani was forced to resign as the BJP President as it was upset over his controversial remarks about Jinnah. Advani was told to put in his papers soon after the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the BJP in Mumbai.With Modi securing a majority for the BJP for the first time in the Lok Sabha in 2014, the RSS was bound to be forced to take the backseat for the next 10 years.Bhagwat has now stirred a Hornet’s nest in the BJP by raking up Kashi and Mathura issues in order to gain centrestage notwithstanding the fact that Modi is still the tallest leader in the BJP and has given no inkling that he wants to hang up his boots in the foreseeable future.Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari are New Delhi-based journalists.