Annual meet of prominent US Hindu group may coincide with PM’S event

NEW DELHI : On September 22 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the Indian-american community in Houston, key functionaries of the US Chapter of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), the overseas counterpart of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), will be engaged in their annual “national council” meeting.

Although the PM is not scheduled to interact separately with HSS office-bearers, a functionary aware of the developments said on the condition of anonymity that the annual meeting could keep the top leadership away from the Modi event, named, “Howdy Modi!”.

Prior to joining electoral politics, Modi served as a prachark or a full-time worker of the RSS, the ideological mentor of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). V Bhagaiah, joint general secretary of the RSS, is expected to attend the annual meeting, which takes stock of the activities undertaken by the different divisions of the HSS.

There are six divisions of the HSS in the US.

During his US visit that begins on September 21, PM Modi will address the 2019 Climate Action Summit hosted by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on September 23, and the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 27.

There is also speculation about a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump.

“Only those functionaries and volunteers who are part of the organising committee will be present for the interaction [with Indian diaspora], which is expected to be attended by over 50,000 people.

Senior functionaries of HSS will be at the annual meeting from September 20 to 22, which was scheduled over a year ago,” said the functionary cited above.

Houston, which has one of the largest concentration of over 500,000 Indian-american community in the US, is the energy capital of the world. Energy security is a priority area for the prime minister.

The US Chapter of HSS is counted among the most active and the biggest overseas counterparts of the RSS.

According to the information on its website, the HSS-USA is a “voluntary, non-profit, social and cultural organisation” with an aim to “organise the Hindu community in order to preserve, practice and promote Hindu ideals and values”.

“The HSS is inspired by the RSS and it can safely be called the overseas chapter of the RSS. It has presence in the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and a host of other countries.