RSS opens up as elections near
NEW DELHI: A nationalist group behind the rise of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is opening up to critics and supporters through a first-of-itskind outreach programme in New Delhi, preparing the ground for his re-election bid next year.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the fountainhead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that believes in a Hindufirst ideology, provided thousands of campaigners for Modi’s landslide victory in 2014, and could help energise its cadre to fend off rising criticism of the government.
A general election is due by May. A three-day lecture session the RSS started on Monday in the capital — rare for a mainly male group that typically broadcasts its views from its headquarters in the western city of Nagpur — is also being seen as an attempt to mainstream the movement that Modi joined in his youth.
“We want to connect with a larger section of society, those who want to understand us, those who want to know us,” Manmohan Vaidya, one of several RSS general secretaries, said.
“We are experiencing a growing curiosity among a large section of society.” The RSS has been banned several times since its inception in 1925, once after a former member of the group assassinated independence hero Mahatma Gandhi in 1948.
Bollywood stars, athletes and ministers attended the first day’s event at a government convention centre as the RSS sought to shed what its chief called a “dictatorial” image to an audience of about 1,300 people.
Its leaders and volunteers wore traditional Indian clothes, but the group’s trademark attire of khaki trousers and white shirts was missing.
A couple of years ago the RSS gave up its old-fashioned khaki shorts to raise its appeal among young people.