RSS hits back at Centre

Sardar Patels letter to Nehru

New Delhi
27 February 1948
My dear Jawaharlal,

Thank you for your letter dated 26 February 1948 which I received just now.
I have kept myself almost in daily touch with the progress of the investigation regarding Bapu's assassination case. I devote a large part of my evening to discussing with Sanjevi the day's progress and giving instructions to him on any points that arise. All the main accused have given long and detailed statements of their activities. In one case, the statement extends to ninety typed pages. From their statements, it is quite clear that no part of the conspiracy took place in Delhi. The centres of activity were Poona, Bombay, Ahmednagar and Gwalior. Delhi was, of course, the terminating point of their activity, but by no means its centre; nor do they seem to have spent more than a day or two at a time, and that too only twice between 19 and 30 January. It also clearly emerges from these statements that the RSS was not involved in it at all.. It was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that [hatched] the conspiracy and saw it through. It also appears that the conspiracy was limited to some ten men, of whom all except two have been got hold of. Every bit of these statements is being carefully checked up and verified and scrutinised, and where necessary, followed up. Sanjevi devotes a considerable time every day to it. Senior officers of Bombay and CP are in charge of the investigation. Delhi police hardly comes in the picture.

Of course, it is impossible for us at this stage to publicise any of these things or to say anything publicly about what is being done to unearth the conspiracy. Every item of information that is being communicated to us through sources, known and unknown, real, anonymous or pseudonymous, is being investigated of information that is being communicated to us through sources, known and unknown, real, anonymous or pseudonymous, is being investigated. More than 90 percent of these have been found to be just imagination. Most of these have been directed to the activities of RSS men in various centres. We have followed this up, and except vague allegations that sweets were distributed or joy was expressed, hardly anything of substance has been found in them. After having dealt with these matters at first hand and discussed these matters in detail with Sanjevi and other officers who are in charge of this investigation, including the Public Prosecutor of Bombay, Mr. Pettigarah, who has been advising the investigators on legal points, I have come to the conclusion that the conspiracy of Bapu's assassination was not so wide as is generally assumed, but was restricted to a handful of men who have been his enemies for a very considerable time --the antipathy can be traced right to the time when Bapu went for his talks with Jinnah, when Godse went on a fast and some others of the conspirators went to Wardha to prevent him [Bapu] from going.

Of course, his assassination was welcomed by those of the RSS and the Mahasabha who were strongly opposed to his way of thinking and to his policy . But beyond this, I do not think it is possible, on the evidence which has come before us, to implicate any other members of the RSS or the Hindu Mahasabha. The RSS have undoubtedly other sins and crimes answer for, but not for this one. If you have any time, I would be glad to send to you Sanjevi and Rana, DIG, CID, Bombay, who are here. They could explain to you the whole case as it has emerged from the investigation. They say they will take another ten days or a fortnight, at the end of which the case will be ripe for being placed in the hands of the Public Prosecutor. As soon as the Public Prosecutor is ready, we hope to appoint a Special Judge to try the case in Delhi.

As regards the RSS in Delhi, I am not aware of any prominent men or active workers whom we have left out. We hear all sorts of reports from somebody or the other regarding a certain person being an active member or not. In some cases, on such reports, arrests were made, and we soon found representations coming from Congressmen themselves testifying to their Congress sympathies and anti-RSS views. We had to release them. In other cases, on arrests of RSS people being made on similar information, both we and the Provincial Governments are being accused of rounding up innocent people. In the case of a secret organisation like the RSS which has no records of membership, no registers, etc., securing of authentic information whether a particular individual is an active worker or not is rendered a very difficult task. Nevertheless I am assured that practically all the important workers of RSS in Delhi have been rounded up. Indeed, some knowledgeable people tell me that we have rounded up more than necessary. I have already asked Provincial Governments, including Delhi, to let us know what has been the result of these arrests, how many have been arrested, how many have been released, what has been revealed in searches, etc. As soon as these reports come in, we shall have to consider our next step. If there are any key men who are still at large, I should like to know their names, so that we can follow them up that police and the local authorities who are in Delhi or elsewhere have an appreciable number of RSS sympathisers. Here again, however, the difficulty is to locate the men. Whenever I have received the least information about the names, and particulars of any RSS men in Government service, I have communicated them to Sanjevi or Mehra. In some cases, Government servants in Delhi have already been arrested for RSS activities. Delhi's quota of RSS arrests compares favourably with that of any other place or province. I doubt, therefore, whether the accusation can be substantiated that Delhi police or local authorities have been inactive on account of RSS sympathies. However, I shall again have a discussion with Mehra on the particular problems which you have mentioned and see what further action could be taken.

Yours sincerely,
Vallabhbhai Patel

Note: I guess Jaswant Singh might have missed this letter his in his “exhaustive research”

CPM Kerala Party Secretary Pinarayi has lost his BEARING!

No one (not even his party men) has high opinion on intelligence of CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. But his latest claims blaming the RSS for the murder of Paul Muthoot George can only come from the mind of  a demented personality. He making this claim because killer has used a S-shaped knife. And according to him S-shaped knife is an RSS specialty!!!

In doing so he is refuting his own police version that it was a ‘quotation’ gang from Changanassery which had murdered Paul George and that the attack was an aftermath of a drunken-brawl.

His allegation comes in wake of growing suspicion about Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s office and relatives involvement in this case. Paul when he was killed was accompanied in the car by Om Prakash and Puthenpalam Rajesh, who were goondas associated with the CPM and it was two police officials of Kollam district who had saved these goondas. I guess Pinnarai is following age old policy of CPM to attack the RSS if anything wrong that happens in the state

Paul George Muthoot, a prominent businessman of the Kerala-based Muthoot Finance group, was waylaid and killed by the 12 member gang shortly after midnight while he was returning home from a resort in his car.

Is TOI - Toilet of India

Todays Times of India has a screaming headline Anti-Sardar Patel book sold from RSS HQ in Gujarat. The reporter Ashish Vashi reoports with baited breath that Seshadri ji’s bookj `The Tragic Story of Partition'  has unflattering references to Nehru and Patel as Seshadri clubs both and holds them responsible for partition!

Following are the excerpt which he found most offending. I am still trying very hard to find the anti sardar reference in this

``When the new Viceroy Lord Mountbatten announced on 3rd June 1947 the plan of transfer of power, it came as a stunning blow to the people. For that plan, approved by Nehru and Patel, had envisaged cutting up Bharat and creation of Pakistan! ... The great and trusted leaders of Congress had turned their back on the sacred oaths they had taken, and the pledges they had administered to the people. What took place on the August 15-15, 1947, was this gross betrayal of the nation's faith, the betrayal of the dreams of countless fighters and martyrs who had plunged into the fire of freedom struggle with the vision of Akhand Bharat in their hearts.''

On another page, Seshadri writes: ``The Working Committee met in a tense atmosphere. Everybody felt depressed at the prospect of Partition. The Viceroy's proposals were accepted without much discussion. As a matter of fact, Jawaharlal and Vallabhai were already committed to the acceptance of the proposals. There was no critical examination...''

People go to Toilet to excrete human waste, It seems TOI has taken that place for Intellectual waste

Sudarshanji’s Jinnah comments misinterpreted

Spokesperson of the RSS, Ram Madhav, spoke exclusively to TIMES NOW on the issue of the comments that were allegedly made by the former chief of RSS, Sudarshan, on Jinnah.
Replying to a question as to how the former chief of the RSS, Sudarshan, had said that Jihhan was committed to undivided India, he said that his statement had been misinterpreted.
He clarified that Sudarshan had said that at one point of time in history, Jinnah had supported undivided India. Madhav also said that Sudarshan had also spoken how Jinnah had been one of the main causes of partition.

There will be no knight in shining armor to rescue BJP

Arun Shourie has dropped a bombshell by suggesting RSS  should do what Mao had once advised his countrymen.

“Bombard the headquarters. Clean up everybody from the top. Bring 10-15 people from the states who are competent, honest and dedicated and reconstruct immediately.”

He went on to add

RSS should have a tighter control over the party and its working “just like an eagle”. “The RSS need not give so much democracy to the party.

However, RSS again reemphasized its oft stated policy that that it will not intervene in BJP affairs and that the party will have to "analyse" the developments and take the right decision.RSS would provide "help and advice" to the BJP "but the political work has to be managed by them." Ram Madhav told

"I want to say this clearly that it is not the job of the RSS,"

RSS has rightly kept its distance from murky world of politics and focused on nation building thru social work. RSS view about politics was captured by ex RSS chief K.S. Sudarshanji when he compared politics to prostitutes. He said

“We have kept ourselves away from politics as salvation cannot be attained through it. Politics keeps changing every minute. Like a prostitute who keeps changing her form, politics also keeps changing its appearance. There is no permanent element in politics,”

Also, RSS can only be messengers of change by offering advice and opinions. RSS can offer a path to transform BJP into a Ideology-driven, Nation-focused organization. But it cannot bring about the change. Change must come from within BJP. Until leadership in BJP recognizes the imperative for change, it will not happen. Over involvement focusing on BJP’s problem will defocus RSS from more critical nation building activity. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is also known to favour a hands-off approach when it comes to BJP

It is romantic to dream & believe that a knight in shining armor would come and rescue the maiden from evil forces and perhaps it is even possible in the imaginary world. However, real world this would remain a pipedream.

Please leave your opinion on comments. Its a very important issue.

Jaswant Singh: The Misfit

Jaswant Singh was born on 3 January 1938  to Late Thakur Sardar Singhji & Shrimati Kunwar Baisa, in Jasol village in Rajasthan's Barmer district formerly a part of the princely state of Jodhpur.

Mr. Singh studied at the Mayo College, Ajmer and was first batch at the National Defence Academy in Khadakvasla. In 1957, he was commissioned to the Central India Horse Armoured Regiment(21st King George V's Own Horse) where he achieved the rank of Major. In Army,  he found it difficult to adjusting to grueling life in Army. In his book, A Call to Honour - In service of Emergent India he describes the Army training  to be exaggerated, needlessly loud and overbearing and which is a daily assault on his  sensibilities, and  free spirit.

It was all clearly so exaggerated, needlessly loud and overbearing, and especially concentrated too, so as to break us in quickly. And for most, that breaking-in was permanent. As I tried to cope with the daily assault on my sensibilities, and upon my incurably free spirit, this ‘understanding’ helped me arrive at just the appropriate response: ‘I must preserve myself and not sink into the anonymity of totally submissive obedience.

Spoken like a True blooded ruler who is used to giving orders(Hukums) to lesser mortals & not taking one. It was not long  before he realised that Army is not his cup of team.

I already knew, had perhaps always known, that I was not going to be in the army for good.

He left Army on 22 November 1966 within just nine years of short service. His official reason for resigning was “to join politics” however there are some who say he premature retirement in 1966 to help the maharaja of Jodhpur manage the royal household. A wise career decision I guess…

What ever may be the reason, he did join politics. His political antipathy for the Congress and particularly for Sardar Patel could have been due to his royal connection. In 1947, Patel had used tact and pressure on the princely states to merge with India. Patel has always been seen negatively by the maharajas and their families.

One would have expected him to join Jan Sangh, founded by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee in 1951  but he fought the election on the Swatantra Party ticket in 1967; the Congress candidate defeated him. For the unaware, Pt. Nehru captured the essence of Swantrata Party when he described it as “the rich man's party” backed by princely rulers and industrialists and opposed to Nehruvian socialism.  In 1971, Swatantra Party secured only 8 seats in the Lok Sabha and after Rajaji's death in 1972, it declined rapidly. The Swatantra experiment ended in 1974 by merging with Bharatiya Kranti Dal led by Charan Singh.

In 1980, He became one of founding members of BJP. However just like in Army even in BJP he was a misfit. He did not believe in the ideology of BJP's or its parent, the RSS. He even maintained his distance from the RSS and its thinking. It is well known he  never joined the Ram temple movement or other such explosive political events.  At best his opportunistic association with BJP can be termed as Marriage of convenience. 

In BJP, he enjoyed the best opportunities that the BJP had to offer, but he was never a mass leader; he was never a popular figure with whom party cadres identified with. He was just a political lightweight who enjoyed power. In fact even, the research of his book was made possible also because of the stature he enjoyed during five years as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

Even while being a senior party leader occupying important positions inparty and parliament, Jaswant Singh embarrassed BJP on several occasions. 

In July 2006, Singh released a book titled A Call to Honour: In Service of Emergent India.A controversy erupted immediately after the release of the book, in which Singh insinuated that a mole had existed in the Prime Ministerial Office during the tenure of Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, who had leaked information to American sources. Soon after, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh challenged him to name the mole. In response, Singh sent a letter to him. The letter, Singh said later, had no signature, and no name of any mole. Jaswant Singh then backed off, saying his views on the subject were based on a "hunch".

It was high time BJP got rid of Misfits…

Sardar Patel and RSS

Also Read Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: Truth

There is an ongoing debate in the country on who took initiative to Ban RSS after tragic murder of RSS.  Following is screen capture of one of most authoritative books (The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics: 1925 to the 1990s ...By Christophe Jaffrelot) which throws some light on this issue. More important is the reference list used by the author. 

If only Jaswant had spend even half the time he spend studying Jinnah to study his parent organisation of 30 years!!! Moreover, If you want to blame Patel for banning RSS then you should also credit him for unbanning RSS after all both these incidents occurred under his watch as home minister. In fact, After Gandhi’s murder, it would have been more difficulty to unban RSS than ban it. If Patel really wanted he could have finished of Nascent RSS.

Sardar Patel supported Hindu activist against Gandhi’s candidate for presidency of congress 

Patel invites RSS to Merge with Congress and his belief that RSS is a patriotic organisation. And how he chides congress for trying to crush RSS

How Patel didnot believe that RSS was not responsible for Murder of Gandhi and how Nehru pressurized him to act

Nehru was Paranoid!

How RSS was brutally repressed

Congress passes resolution authorizing Swayamsewaks to be part of congress

There will be no secular tears for Rulda Singh!

Rulda Singh, head of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, an affiliate of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)  succumbed to his injuries in PGI.

Earlier, Babbar Khalsa Internationl (BKI) had claimed responsibility for the attack on him.

Had it been a a leader of some other minority group our secular media would have cried a river!

RSS begins swine flu awareness drive

As Government of India remains clueless, the swine flue cases are increasing by leaps and bounds and people are finding themselves left high and dry. As usual, RSS is rising to the occasion.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) city unit plans to hold a swine flu awareness drive, which will begin from Monday. A meeting of officials of various organisations, including the National Institute of Virology (NIV), the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), and the Indian Medical Association held a meeting at the RSS office, where the decision was taken.

RSS workers will help the people at the 15 PMC screening centres. They will also provide leaflets to various housing societies and hope to reach out to up to 1,000 societies in this way.

Those who want to participate in the drive or want to know more about the programme can contact Atul Kulkarni (9226824336), Sachin Kulkarni (9763704818) or Balasaheb Phatak (9822610024).

Quote of the day

'RSS is not in half pant and half pant is part of only our uniform. We are always open to change,' reiterates RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat

Did you know about these Sangh Seva projects?

• RSS has 16,208 Educational projects, 11,665 Health Projects, 8994 Self Reliance Projects & 16,412 Social Projects. These all total up to 98,768 as of now. These projects every year cover not less than 10,00,000 needy & poor children, old people, women, ill people etc. The work by RSS done whenever there is any natural calamity has not even been mentioned here but very silently & with dedication RSS reaches 1^st in any calamity to help people – be it floods, earthquakes, fires or so on.
• VHP’s 1 Teacher Schools (Ekal Vidyalaya) number up to 26, 880 & they cover 7,72,065 students of which around 6 Lakhs students are from Tribal areas. This is the largest Hindu Missionary work in India & perhaps even the world by a single organization. What’s more, wherever there is a Ekal Vidyalaya, there is Village Development Unit under which a Medical Centre is run, making the Medical Centres also to 26,880.
• VHP also has other Educational Projects: 569 Primary schools covering 59,300 students, 156 Secondary schools covering 12,750 students, 53 Sr Secondary schools covering 2120 students. Then there are 15 Residential schools, many Night schools, 104 Hostels including 44 Orphanages. All these cover over 75,000 poor & needy children who are given standard quality Education & many other facilities of life. (From one of such Tribal schools, last year Board result was 100% & the highest score a student has got was 93%, recently I met a smart student of 2^nd year MBBS. To my joy, he was from one of VHP’s Orphanages.)
• VHP has Health Projects: 34 Hospitals, 99 Dispensaries, 19 Mobile Dispensaries, 28 Ambulances, 192 First Aid Centres, 4 Medicine Collection Centres, 13 Goumutra Therapy Centres & many such related centers. TOTAL PATIENTS COVERED UNDER THESE ARE ANUALLY 2,80,000 min.
• Just recently in Pune a project Niramaya has covered 68 slums & 18 Construction Sites for Vaccination of children there in age group 1 day to 6 years. Total 12,025 children are vaccinated & 1 Lakh doses were given. They have a mobile van too so that the poor children do not need to come for it, Niramaya goes where they are.
• Not just Education or Health, some Sadhu-Sants are doing what ideally falls under the governments in power only. In Andhra Pradesh Ananthpur Dist, 700 villages have been supplied clean drinking water through modern pipes worth Rs 350 Crore. NOT by any government, but Sri Sathya Saibaba. And its free.
• Arya Samaj has 700 schools covering 15,00,000 students & 80 colleges covering 16,800 colleges.
• Swaminarayan Gurukul schools are 142 covering 12,000 students, 160 High Schools with 1,20,000 students & 25 colleges.
• Sadhvi Ritambharaji runs an Orphanage for little girls at Vrindavan, which has at this moment 350 little girls taking modern education. They would have been wandering on streets becoming victims of heinous crimes but now they have bright dreams of future in their little eyes.
• Sri Sri Guruji Ravishankarji’s developmental work covers at least 30,000 villages where Natural Agricultural projects, Organic Farming are being done where only in Karnataka 2000 youth are engaged full time & all India at least 20,000 youth look after this. He also has established a program for awareness about & help to AIDS patients all India. Recently there was a well attended caucus of Hindu Leaders organized for this & many of us have pledged our active support to it.
• Hunger is the number 1 killer in the world & in India. VHP, to fight this is doing a project ‘Ek Mutthi Anaj’ where the workers of various industries who lost jobs due to recent economic slowdown were provided with 15 kilos of food grains each for their families & the target is to cover at least 12,00,000 families with this ‘Anna Daan’ So far we have covered 15,000+ families. It also has a Food Bank where house wives take out 1 mutthi anaj everyday, it is collected by volunteers for distribution systematically. NO family has to come begging for the food is the most important part in it. Ek Mutthi Anaj Programme goes to their houses & respectfully gives food grains to them as Anna-Daan.
• Sri Sathya Saibaba also has a high-tech Heart hospital where they target to do 1,25,000 heart surgeries. 25,000 surgeries are already done with ZERO cost.
• NOT just socio-developmental projects but VHP also doing a lot in Art & Culture. In Pune, a music album made waves recently. Songs sung by Pundit Jitendra Abhisheki’s son Shounak, Pundit Bhimsen Joshi’s shishya Upendra Bhat & Shri Vasantrao Deshpande’s grandson Rahul Deshpande made this album a great hit & it was done by VHP. The artists gave programmes for VHP & then the album was made & available on the stands. Art is an important part of Hindu Dharma & it is our duty to preserve our fine arts.
• This effort was done even in children’s paintings. In tribal schools, a painting competition was organized which got tremendous response. 12 paintings were awarded & brought to people as greeting cards. All participants got nice certificates.
• At Dharmasthal near Mangalore Manjunath Devasthana is doing a unique project of innovative natural Agri-systems in 500 villages. They also have a legally accepted local justice system.
• Self Reliance Projects by us are helping youth & women in many villages with 94 Sewing centers, 63 Computer Training Centres, 306 Women’s Self Help Groups with Micro Credit & savings facility, 2 Mechanical Training Centres, 1 Honey-Bee Centre, 16 House Hold industry Centres, 112 Libraries… The list is long. & the beneficiaries are in millions.
• Sadhvi Maa Amrithanandamyiji has been running a multi-specialty hospital in Kochi which serves around 48,000 patients annually, has 38 hi-tech departments & 1,650 beds- The largest in Asia

Today is Guru Puja

Ancient Hindu texts and traditions have put the guru or the teacher on a pedestal higher than that of God. And Guru Purnima is a time to be grateful, to express gratitude towards, and bow before, the guru.

RSS holds the saffron flag as its guru and therefore the supreme. At the outset, the Sanghachalak performs puja of the saffron flag to mark the beginning of the celebrations. This is a time when each swayamsevak offers the “samarpan rashi”, a token amount of monetary contributions towards the organisation.

It may be hard to believe for many but RSS runs on this Samarpar Rashi. If you would like to offer “samarpan rashi” Please visit nearest shakha.

A Swayamsewak demonstrates how to cycle to ministerdom and win elections on Rs 2500

When other legislators pages for car at Vidhana Soudha, he walks to the scooter stand. Only on the advice of his doctor after he started suffering from spondylitis did he purchase a car, a second-hand one at that. He is yet to set foot on foreign soil

He is S Suresh Kumar law and urban development minister in chief minister B S Yeddyurappa's minsitry. Suresh's association with the RSS started very early. He joined the organisation when he was in the fourth standard.

Suresh's involvement in underground activities protesting against the Emergency in 1975 landed him in jail for 15 months. It was his talk "on the ill effects'' of the Emergency to Commonwealth country delegates at Hotel Ashok that made the party top brass spot his leadership potential. he recalls.

"The government convinced delegates that the situation here was normal. Though there was heavy security in the hotel, I gave the police the slip and entered the bus in which the delegates were about to go to Mysore, and explained that all was not well in the country due to the Emergency,''

Let6s pray RSS continues to produce such Idealists….

Sangh schools score high in Orissa

The NCERT calls its textbooks

"designed to promote bigotry and religious fanaticism in the name of inculcating knowledge of culture in the young generation."

Sagarika Ghose in an Indian Express article wrote about it as

An invisible army hides in the forests of Orissa, growing stronger every day.

Arjun Singh promised to Ban it

Tehelka in an article "A Strange And Bitter Crop" exposed their dangerous plans to bring up young children "‘the Hindu way" by making them chant Brahminical chant — Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwara.

All these dooms day prophecies by all knowing seculars make one wonder like in English movies… Who are these people?…..

Well these people are RSS run Vidya Bharathi educational institutions. Some of prominent schools under Vidya Bharathi unbrella are Ekal Vidyalaya (26850 Schools), Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandirs etc.

This year for High School Certificate examinations in Orissa, 44 of the top 102 students were from Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandirs. In fact, seven of the top 10 ranks are from SVMs. Trends over the past six years have shown that SVMs generally do better than other schools in the state. Last year too, these RSS-run schools had done well with 15 of its students securing top-20 positions.

From humble beginnings in 1978, the march of these RSS-run schools is a success story that has not been highlighted much. Today, there are over 11,000 Acharyas and Gurumas (teachers) in 739 SVMs across the state who live a no-frills life to teach 1.8 lakh students from kindergarten to Class XII for a pittance.

Pitabas Mehena, father of this year’s topper, Bibek Bishal Mehena says

“Though the teachers get lower salaries than their counterparts in government-run high schools, no one can beat them when it comes to dedication towards their students. For them it is a mission,”

Dharanidhar Nath, president of Board of Secondary Examination, the body that conducts the HSC examination.

“In government schools, teachers teach just for the sake of it. In Shishu Mandirs, they attach a lot of ethical value to the education,”

It is no wonder that some of “Minority” organisations and their backers which run education as “business” are threatened and would like to kill this noble mission.

A film on Keshav Baliram Hedgewar aka Doctorji - The founder of Sangh

DoctorJi

In Buddha’s own country: Buddha gets Jeer while Women blew conch-shells to welcome the swayamsevaks

Gosaba on Sunday, Hingalganj on Tuesday. Twice in three days, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee confronted a surge of anger, frustration and discontent as he visited victims of Cyclone Aila. Buddha perhaps for first time in his life was jeered by the crowd and asked to return to Kolkata.

Now cut to the relief work spearheaded by Seva Bharati – Seva Vibhag of RSS

It was a nightmarish experience for 50-odd swayamsevaks who braved the storm and rains and started distributing relief to distressed villagers at Basanti, Sonakhali, Kultuli, Gosaba, Pathankhali, Hemnagar and Mandirghat within six hours after the Aila lashed villages in the Sunderbans on May 25.

Initially, the starving villagers took swayamsevaks as state government relief employees and started to hurl abuses. However, when the distressed villagers discovered that they were RSS volunteers and risked their lives to bring them relief materials, they were simply over-joyed and begged pardon for their initial mistake. Women blew conch-shells to welcome the swayamsevaks in their mud houses.

Swayamsevaks of the two neighbouring districts have set up 32 relief camps and have been feeding about 30,000 cyclone-hit hapless villagers daily since May 26. The worst affected are the five blocks, Hasnabad, Najat, Sandeshkhali I & II and Hingalganj. Here 50 shakhas are affected due to large-scale inundation. Even after flooding, swayamsevaks are running two relief camps in Basantitala where cooked food is supplied to nearly 4,000 villagers daily. As the villagers have lost everything and have no means to cook rice, the meals are being cooked at the RSS relief centres on the main land and then transported by country boats to relief camps set up by sawyamsevaks in far-flung Sunderban islands daily.

 

AN APPEALRSS has appealed to people all over the country to come forward at this time of crisis and shoulder some social responsibility by donating liberally to organisations like Bastuhara Sahayata Samiti, RSS Samaj Sewa Bharati, Friends of Tribal Society and Bharat Sevashram Sangh.

Believe it or not

In 1979, Youth Congress under Sanjay Gandhi tried to organise itself along the lines of RSS. Secret instructions were send out from Sanjay Gandhi to YC(I) units to organise shakhas of their own wherever the RSS is holding its shakhas.

Grand Mufti of Syria calls for Akhand Bharat

The RSS vision of an Akhand Bharat has an unlikely supporter, the Grand Mufti of Syria, Dr Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun. The Mufti feels

"You need to bring back the idea of pre-independence India. An Indian continent which for over a thousand years was home to all civilisations -- Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Christians and Sikhs.

He believes that the barriers between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are unnatural and should be removed. The holy man cites the example of Europe, where boundary lines are becoming irrelevant.

Everyone living in India is a 'Hindu': RSS

At his first public appearance after taking over as the new SarSanghchalak, Mohan BhagwatJi Said:

Hindu is not the name of community. It is a way of life. Each one who resides in Bharat, the greater Bharat before partition is a Hindu and should be proud of his or her identity. We are Hindu by nature and culture.

Hindusthan was not limited to the geographical entity called India.It is variously described as being a Bharatiya, an Arya or a Hindu. But this idea is emancipatory — this talks about the welfare of all. Ingrained in our philosophy, this is also known as Hindutva.

In the last 60 years of our Independence, many of our problems have not been addressed. We have changed rulers, we have changed governments, but true change can be brought by people’s aspirations... when they aspire to be world leaders. No neta (leader), Niti (policy), Raj (rule)... Can be complete without respect for people's aspiration. The aspiration of people of this country, who are Hindus irrespective of the religion they belong ... Is the welfare of humanity.

Recalling that Kalam had unveiled an encyclopedia on Hinduism recently, he said that every pronouncement of the former president had three essential ingredients — the need to respect India’s might (“Shakti ki aradhna”); ancient culture; and the belief that Hinduism was an amalgam of every other religion. Bhagwat also referred to Kurien’s book I too had a dream.

The 40-minute speech, as per the Sangh tradition, steered clear of politics

A Truly inspiring speech. I am sure RSS will reach new heights under Mohanji's guidance