Mail Today - 30 July 2014
RSS plans new saffron hub in MP
By Anup Dutta in Bhopal
THE Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS) is all set to establish its new headquarters in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh. With that the Sangh is aiming to boost its activities in northern and western India, especially in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
According to senior Sangh sources, the RSS would relocate staff members from its current headquarters in Nagpur to Malwa region to oversee the functioning of the new centre.
Malwa, where the RSS has had a strong presence, has been at the centre of the Sangh’s activities for long.
Speaking to M AIL T ODAY , a top RSS functionary said: “ Decision regarding another centre ( in the Malwa region) will be made in the interest of growing network of the Sangh. It will allow us to focus even more intensely on western and northern parts of the country.
RSS has achieved a very deep level of localisation, and a new centre will help us to create a new identity, besides implementing Sangh’s strategies for the region.” The Sangh strategists believe that with this shift from Nagpur to Malwa, there will be greater interaction between the organisation and people of the region.
“ Unless we mingle with the people of five states, we can’t gauge their thoughts and measure their pulse. Hence, we are planning to establish a centre in the region at the earliest,” said another senior RSS functionary.
The importance of the region is evidenced by the fact that this will be the second time in a month that key functionaries of the RSS will be meeting there. Early this month, RSS chief Mohanrao Bhagwat had camped in Mohankheda, in Dhar district, for a week to attend the Sangh’s annual meeting. The meet, which was attended by the prant pracharaks, also saw participation of about 40 outfits under the Sangh Parivar.
Members of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh were among others who had joined the meet.
It was at the meet that the decision to anoint Amit Shah as the Bharatiya Janata Party president was informally announced. The decision of RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav joining BJP was also made at Mohankheda.
Beginning on Wednesday ( July 30), key RSS functionaries will be meeting in Bhopal. The list of participants for the five- day meet includes RSS chief Bhagwat, besides Bhaiyyaji Joshi, Suresh Soni, Dattatreya Hosabale, Manmohan Vaid, S. Gurumurthi and Vinod Kumar. Both the Sangh and BJP consider Malwa region as the laboratory for political experiments. A few years ago, when the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government completed its 100 days in office, BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani had told a gathering of party members in Bhopal that the Sangh had chosen Madhya Pradesh as the laboratory for political experiments.
With the BJP’s massive win in the Lok Sabha elections, the Sangh felt that it was necessary to nurture the region more vigorously than before. Of the 171 Lok Sabha seats in the region, BJP has won in 159 seats.
In Madhya Pradesh it won 27 seats ( of 29 seats); in Chhattisgarh it won 10 seats ( 11); in UP it won 71 seats ( 80); in Rajasthan it won all the 25 seats; and in Gujarat all the 26 seats. Even in the 2009 LS polls, BJP had won maximum number of seats from these five states, the senior RSS functionary said.
WHY IN MADHYA PRADESH
In the last one decade, Madhya Pradesh seems to have silently pushed the RSS’s Hindutva policies.
A stringent law is in place against cow slaughter.
Chapters of Gita have been added in the school syllabus.
‘ Dev Putra’, an RSS publication, has been included in the school textbooks.
Events of Surya Namaskar are regular in the schools.
There has been no major communal clash in the state.
Activities of groups like the Bajrang Dal have been kept under control.
BJP has won all the nine Lok Sabha seats in Malwa region.
Several BJP leaders earned votes of Muslims in the last election from Malwa.
The state organises ‘ mass nikaah’, just like mass marriages, for which the state pays the expenses.
Both the Sangh and BJP consider Malwa region as the laboratory for political experiments
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