Youth Interest In Shakhas Drying Up

From Pradeep Kapoor

LUCKNOW: The three-day RSS national conclave, which ended in Lucknow, the city of erstwhile nawabs, on Sunday expressed concerned over decline in people’s participation in RSS shakhas all over the country.

Much significance is being attached to the speech of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat who not only expressed his concern but asked all senior leaders and workers to enroll more members in the shakhas.

It would be worth mentioning here that RSS shakhas are the main strength of the Sangh parivar where people are trained and educated about RSS philosophy.

The senior members of RSS observed that the number of shakhas had declined all over the country, especially in northern states like UP and Bihar that are ruled by non-BJP governments.

Significantly, RSS chief Mohan Bhagat appealed to all workers, ‘Swayam Sewaks’, to attended shakhas regularly.

Bhagwat and other senior leaders appealed to members of the Sangh parivar, including 30 frontal organisations participating in the conclave, to reach out to youth of the country to bring them to shakhas, as India has a large number of youth population.

With Modi government at the centre, RSS wants to broaden the base of the Sangh parivar. That is why call was given to reach out to all section of society and win over the remaining states for BJP in remaining years.

Mohan Bhagwat asked ABVP workers to concentrate especially on people from medical and technical fraternity to broaden the base of RSS.

Similarly he advised VHP to work on the eradication of untouchability and child marriages to make more goodwill in the society.

Keeping in mind 2017 assembly polls in UP, call was given out to RSS workers to win over dalits, core voters of BSP, by sharing food with them time to time and extend full support if they face any problem from Akhilesh Yadav government.

It would be worth mentioning here that RSS-BJP had already started working on the agenda to win over dalits in western UP which paid rich dividends in Lok Sabha polls.

Whenever there was confrontation between dalits and Muslims especially in western UP, BJP-RSS leaders were seen supporting dalits as there was no attempts from BSP leaders to help them.

In order to help Modi government, RSS has now decided to shed the image of being anti-Muslim. Several participants in the conclave said the time had come that RSS should work with Muslim community to instill confidence that it was not anti-Muslim organisation and would support nationalist Muslims but would oppose the policy of Muslim appeasement.

As expected the issue of “love jihad” was also raised during three-day conclave and participants said that it was not simply an attempt to lure Hindu girls for marriage by Muslim boys but it was a conspiracy against Hindu culture. It would be worth mentioning here that the issue of “love jihad” was raised by BJP during last assembly by-polls but it could not make any impact as party lost majority of its seats.

It was also pointed out in the conclave by the participants that but for BJP and its friendly parties all other political parties were supporting “love jihad”.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and other participants expressed concern over the terror situation in the country and condemned terrorist organisations like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, saying there are regular threats from them to India.

The participants also expressed concern over the regular attacks from Pakistan and China on birder and asked for counter attack from India to defend its birder and self respect.

Senior political analyst Surendra Rajput said that apathy of RSS toward women who constitute half of the population is evident from fact that conclave had representation from women. Similarly, Congress spokesman Satyadeo Tripathi said that RSS leaders had no face in parliamentary democracy that they avoided casting this vote in Nagpur and came to attend the conclave.

The political analyst feel that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat must have discussed road map for BJP and the Sangh parivar for 2017 assembly polls with BJP national president Amit Shah and other senior leaders of BJP who attended the conference.

In order to save Modi government from any embarrassment, RSS conclave did not pass any resolution to put any pressure on the government.

Even the issue of Ram Temple was discussed on such a manner that it should not create any problem for Modi government. RSS said that construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya was a national issue and Modi government had ample time till 2019 to act on it. BJP national president Amit Shah also supported this stand of RSS. (IPA Service)