RSS

Saffron stretch

40RSS Reaching out: RSS members during a drill in Kolkata. The RSS has plans to increase its base in West Bengal.

RSS plans to expand its base in south and east India

Almost two years ago, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh began its intensive programme to integrate all castes, particularly the dalits, into the Hindu mainstream. From hailing B.R. Ambedkar as a Hindu icon to running the campaign ‘one well, one temple, one crematorium’ for all castes, the RSS’s massive efforts helped the BJP win the election in Uttar Pradesh. Now, the ideological fountainhead of the party is focusing on extending its influence in the east and south India, the two regions where the saffron party is too lean.

This was the message filtering out at the end of the annual meet of the RSS in Coimbatore in March. The focus would again be samajik samrasta (social harmony). The RSS has also set a target of having its shakhas in two lakh places, especially in rural India, by 2025—its centenary year. General secretary Suresh Bhayyaji Joshi told the delegates that the number of shakhas had increased from 56,859 to 57,233 since last year. Despite that increase, there has been a slight dip in the number of places where these shakhas have been formed—36,729 as compared to 36,867 places in 2016.

Holding its annual meeting in Tamil Nadu, a first in its history, signalled the RSS’s strategy to target states that have been under strong regional influences. Former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, who died last December, had kept a tight leash on the sangh’s expansion plans in the state. In January, for the first time in 16 years, the RSS was able to hold a march in Chennai. The RSS work has been focused on expanding its reach in the rural areas and among the marginalised communities, the dalits and the scheduled tribes. Special programmes are lined up in villages along the state’s 776 roads throughout the year. It has held functions focused on the youth since last October. In January, Swami Vivekananda’s birthday was celebrated in these villages. So far, it has covered 1,268 villages along 418 state roads. Likewise, its two-day campaign in Nagercoil last year had 2,628 child swayamsevaks from 426 areas, while its Bharat Mata Poojan was held at 2,043 places, which saw more than 1.55 lakh children, women and youth. In May, the RSS has planned to set up bal sanskar kendra (children’s culture centres) in villages.

41-expansion-plan

During the annual meet, the RSS leadership singled out the governments of West Bengal and Kerala, where, it said, its members were being attacked because it was growing fast. In Kerala, the RSS is focusing on the youth, particularly students in professional and higher educational institutes. It began holding meetings with students from outside Kerala, in which 274 members participated. They, in turn, set up contact with 238 of 450 colleges across the state in the last one year. In all, 43 meetings were held, which culminated in a two-day camp in Ernakulam last year where more than 1,200 students participated.

“The purpose of the [annual] meet was not only [to discuss] our expansion in south India, but also to look at [our] reach across the country,” RSS spokesperson Manmohan Vaidya told THE WEEK. “Now, we have presence in 40 per cent of 55,000 mandals in the country. Our effort is to focus on training bal swayamsevaks, college going students and IT professionals who are joining us.”

In West Bengal, the RSS has been critical of the Mamata Banerjee government. At the annual meeting, it passed a resolution expressing grave concern over the “unabated rise in violence by jihadi elements” in the state.

“Hindus were being attacked by fundamentalist elements at several places,” said Dattatreya Hosable, joint general secretary of the RSS. “On the one hand, the state government is threatening to close down schools that are instilling the spirit of patriotism. On the other, it is turning a blind eye to thousands of institutions like the notorious Simulia madrassa where jihadi and fundamentalist training is being imparted.”

As the sangh works among different communities and social groups in order to strengthen the Hindu identity, the BJP is usually its main beneficiary politically, which was evident in states like Uttar Pradesh. The BJP’s focus will now shift to Gujarat—home to both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah—where elections are due in December. The state had faced agitations by the Patel community, demanding reservations, and dalits following harassment by cow vigilantes. So, the RSS has been focusing on maintaining social harmony here. “The sangh has set up a 15-member committee in all the cities and tehsils of the state for holding social harmony sammellans. Two state-level programmes were held,” said Joshi at the annual meet. “In future, we hope such meetings will be held at all places.”

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The Week

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