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RSS has new chief who says India is
a Hindu Rashtra
Mansewak Singh
 NAGPUR:
The RSS, India's topmost right wing demi-political organisation that
dreams of turning the country into a theocratic Hindu rashtra
announced a new chief in Nagpur, last week, naming 58-year-old Mohan
Bhagwat as the sixth chief of the RSS who replaced 78-year-old K
Sudarshan and is known to enjoy a better rapport with its right-wing
political party unit BJP. The first thing that Bhagwat announced
after becoming head of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh was to
announce that he would live upto the tradition of RSS and uphold the
interests of Hindu Rashtra as "India is a Hindu Rashtra and all
people living here are Hindus. None can't deny this fact".
Bhagwat's
statement that came at a time when India is racing towards elections
and the BJP is playing the hardline Hindutva card again in some
parts of the country and went completely unchallenged by the
Congress which itself does oppose the radical ideas churned out by
the BJP but is not above catering to a soft core version of Hindutva.
Congress was the
party that favoured opening of locks of the Babri Mosque to Hindus
thus clearing the way for the BJP to later demolish it. Bhagwat, a
veterinary doctor turned politician-do-gooder and a bachelor is the
youngest RSS chief after much reviled fellow Maharashtrian, Guru
Golwalkar, and is widely expected to redefine relations with BJP at
a time when the saffron party is trying hard to come back to power
at the Centre.
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The first thing that Bhagwat announced after becoming head of
the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh was to announce that he would
live upto the tradition of RSS and uphold the interests of Hindu
Rashtra as "India is a Hindu Rashtra and all people living here
are Hindus. None can't deny this fact". |
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Akali Dal which
has a tie up with the BJP has not commented on the change of
leadership in the RSS though Parkash Singh Badal has not lost any
opportunity to plead with the electorate to make BJP's L K Advani
the Prime Minister. Advani, who visited
Nagpur to meet
Bhagwat within hours, said whatever he was today was because of the
RSS and he owes his life and role to the saffron body.
Indian civil
society has become almost apathetic to claims by senior RSS and BJP
leaders who talk all too often in terms of working for the welfare
of the Hindu Rashtra and turning India into a Hindu Rashtra.
The RSS is an
organisation with many tentacles, calls itself a social organisation,
runs thousands of schools and RSS seminaries called shakhas,
preaches various versions of aversion to hatred towards the
minorities, and acts as a parent body to peddlers of divisive and
communal ideologies like the Bajrang Dal, the VHP, the BJP, the Sri
Ram Sena etc, the ABVP etc.
Bhagwat, who has
good relations with BJP leadership including L K Advani, was
replaced as general secretary by veteran ideologue Suresh Soni. Soni
used to be in BJP hierarchy a few years ago as a joint general
secretary.
Bhagwat belongs
to Chandrapur in the Vidarbha region and was born
Sep 11, 1950.
He graduated in veterinary sciences and animal husbandry from
Punjabrao Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola. His father too was an RSS
pracharak in Gujarat for sometime. He headed the physical training
program for RSS cadres across the country in 1991, a post he held
till 1999. It was this trainign that came in handy during the Babri
Masjid demolition.
In 2000, when
Rajendra Singh and H.V. Seshadri decided to step down as RSS chief
and general secretary respectively due to poor health, KS Sudarshan
was nominated the new chief and Mohan Bhagwat rose to the post of
general secretary for three years. He got re-elected to the office
in 2003 and 2006.
On Saturday, he
was nominated by 74-year-old Sudarshan to succeed as the outfit's
chief at the meeting of the RSS' top decision-making body, the Akhil
Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha. Sudarshan stepped down on grounds of
poor health.
25 March 2009
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