RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) APPOINTS A NEW CHIEF
Unlike any other organization in India, RSS chiefs are appointed and not elected. A new chief has been appointed to replace Sudarshan. Given the absolute control that the RSS chief exercises over RSS and all its affiliates, this change of guards of a fascist organization is important.
Dr Mohan Bhagwat, Maharashtra Brahmin and trained to be as Veterinary surgeon, is the new head of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the powerful Hindutva “mother organization.” The “shakha” continues to be the basic unit of the RSS organizational structure, from where RSS gets its volunteers, or Swayamsevaks”. The RSS meetings are generally held in neighborhood parks. There is no official membership, or any records. According to RSS estimates, till the end of January 2009 there were 43,905 shakhas (primary branches) running in 30,015 places [if each Sakha has 20 members, very likely, RSS will have approximately 1 million members, ed.); weekly shakhas were being held in 4,964 places and monthly meetings took place in 4,507 locations all over India. There is no official count of its “swayamsevaks”.
RSS is exclusively for males. But it has a women’s wing, Rashtriya Sevika Samiti. In 1948, RSS was banned in independent India for the first time following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. The government suspected that the RSS played an active role in the killing. The ban was lifted in 1949. The RSS was banned twice later: during the ‘Emergency’ declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975, and after the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992. Bhagwat’s first formal announcement has been he will ensure that every Hindu votes for the Bhartiya Janata Party, the political face of the RSS.
[Abridged from IANS report by Arun Anand]
(Circulated by Dr. John Dayal: johndayal@vsnl.com; March 22, 2009)
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