Against same-sex marriages, but open to debate, says RSS

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 10

The BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) is against same-sex marriages, but open to a debate on the issue. Sangh’s opposition to gay marriages has been recorded in a new book, the first official account of RSS thoughts authored by a top sangh functionary.

Entitled “The RSS: Roadmaps for the 21st Century”, the Rupa publication written by Sunil Ambekar, a sangh pracharak and national organising secretary of RSS student wing ABVP, will hit the stands on October 1.

The project is creating a buzz over the nature of topics it would cover given sangh’s general reluctance to articulate its viewpoint through officially sanctioned publications.

Part of RSS’ new plan to expand its social outreach across India, the book speaks of building family values-based casteless society and details sangh’s roadmap to achieve that goal.

“The Book speaks of why gay marriages cannot be allowed. It will bring in new complications. The society can discuss the issue. The RSS is not closing a discussion on same-sex marriages, but is opposed to these as of today,” Ambekar says. The book also terms live-in relationships as “unadvisable”.