RSS: Temple issue over, no pending resolutions now

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 8

The top brass of the ruling BJP’s ideological mentor organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), will meet in Nagpur next week and is likely to pass a resolution stressing duties of citizens in aiding India’s global rise.

Agenda of meet

• Upcoming RSS meet in Nagpur likely to pass a resolution on citizen duties. It will urge people against splurging finances.
• Will also discuss ways of bridging caste divide in temples, etc.

The All-India Pratinidhi Sabha, a 1,500-strong top decision-making body of RSS, will meet between March 15 and 17 and deliberate on five key issues — social harmony; environmental protection; preservation of family values; citizen duties; self-reliance; and self-rule. Top sources said the RSS would steer clear of comments on the ongoing Gyanvapi mosque and Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute in Varanasi and the Shahi Idgah mosque and Krishna Janmabhoomi dispute in Mathura. “The temple issue is closed. The RSS’ only resolution ever was on the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the birth place of Lord Ram. Objectives of that resolution passed way back in 1987 stand achieved. There is no remaining standing resolution on any other issue now,” an RSS official said when asked if the Sangh would support the ongoing VHP agitation for reclamation of more Hindu places of worship where, they claim, mosques stand.

The RSS said other organisations were free to chart their agendas. A top Sangh functionary on Thursday told The Tribune that the high-level Sangh assembly in Nagpur would emphasise austerity as part of citizen duties.

“Austerity is part of the larger charter of citizen duties on which the Pratinidhi Sabha is likely to bring a resolution. The idea is whether we can learn to avoid non-essential expenditure and factor in the haves-not. Adherence to duties also includes honouring strict as well as mundane laws including traffic norms,” a source said, adding that the meeting would witness the election of RSS’ new joint general secretaries who are changed every three years.

The gathering will further call for 100 per cent voting turnout on the eve of 18th General Election and impress upon cadres to ensure mobilisation of voters.

Besides that, the main talking point would be preservation of social harmony.

“Various RSS bodies across states have conducted surveys which have revealed continuing caste divides in places of worship, cremation grounds and in access to sources of drinking water. The gathering will focus on how to end this discrimination,” said a top RSS functionary.

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