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RSS outfits grow, away from politics | Sangh Parivar
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The BJP’s ongoing membership drive may be struggling but the party’s Sangh parivar siblings are growing robustly.
These other RSS progenies claim that being away from power and politics is an advantage, and that the BJP’s departure from the Centre and loss of ground in some state strongholds have actually helped them.
- He said that for the six years the BJP had ruled at the Centre, the BMS had repeatedly taken on the government over economic reforms and foreign direct investments — and that each time it did so, its membership grew.
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“Because the BMS is not attached to a political party but to a service organisation like the RSS, we are not encumbered by compulsions to back a party’s agenda.”
The leaders of some other RSS front outfits too cited their “autonomy” from the BJP as the main reason for their survival and growth.
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The ABVP has the largest following in BJP-ruled Karnataka and in Andhra Pradesh, a state where the party practically doesn’t exist.
“Students are attracted to us because we work beyond the campus for the betterment of society. Our biggest slogan is against the commercialisation of education and that affects one and all,” said Ravi Kumar, ABVP national secretary.
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Kripa Prasad Singh, joint general secretary of the Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, which works mainly in the Maoist zones, said an “apolitical” outlook was the best way of ensuring that state governments did not stand in the organisation’s way.
“Congress governments have never harassed us because they appreciate the services we render to the tribals,” Singh said.
“Even the CPM government in Tripura has been friendly. But not the Bengal government — they deprive the tribals who use our schools and hostels of the monthly stipend they are entitled to.”
- article by RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
RSS outfits grow, away from politics | Sangh Parivar
