Change of guard in RSS after 26 years

Vishav Bharti
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 23

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After a gap of 26 years, Punjab RSS witnessed a change of guard as Iqbal Singh Ahluwalia, a former Food Corporation of India employee, replaced RSS veteran Brijbhushan Bedi on Sunday.

Ahluwalia takes charge

Iqbal Singh Ahluwalia, son of a ‘sangh sanchalak’, became active in the RSS at the age of nine when he started going to the ‘shakha’ along with his father. He has been active in the RSS since 1963 and has worked at Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, a social arm of the RSS.

Ahluwalia (70), who hails from Sangrur, was elected at a state-level meeting of the sangh. His name was proposed by Bedi. Sources in the sangh said that Bedi was citing old age for the past some time and wanted to get relieved of the responsibility.

Bedi relieved

Brijbhushan Bedi (90) became active in the sangh in his teen years. He was part of the RSS even during Partition in 1947. Bedi, who hailed from Amritsar, has been sangh sanchalak for the past 26 years.

Some time back, Ahluwalia was made joint sangh state sanchalak. Sources in the RSS said that eyeing the huge population of Hindus in Malwa, RSS has cleverly chosen the new state head from Sangrur.

Ahluwalia said he got associated with the RSS in 1963. He said that his aim was to expand the RSS’ social work in Punjab. “I am not interested in politics,” he said.

Ahluwalia, a Sikh, has been elected leader of the RSS in the times when leaders of radical Hindu organisations are on the hit list of radical Sikh bodies. Ahluwalia remained evasive about the fact that radical Hindu leaders are being targeted in the state. “We all are together. There is no such issue,” he said.