RSS chief's Vijaya Dashami speech used to be keenly watched during the previous NDA regime when there was a communication breakdown between the two sides with the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leading the government and K.S. Sudarshan, the RSS. “This time it was not an address to the ordinary RSS worker or the government but to society at large,” said Hitesh Shankar, editor of the RSS mouthpiece, Panchjanya .
Mr. Bhagwat sought to broadbase the address for a national audience and pitch Hindutva as the panacea for India’s ills rather than a sermon to RSS cadres alone. “The echo of integral humanism rang throughout the speech,” he added.
Though some news reports in recent weeks suggested a divergence between the RSS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on issues, the PM has been in regular touch with the top leadership of the Sangh, sources told The Hindu .
Though the Prime Minister’s first radio address, reaching an ever wider audience, was broadcast barely two hours after Mr. Bhagwat’s speech, the former sought to clarify that it was the first in a series. “I will try to speak to you once or twice a month on Sundays,” Mr. Modi said.
Reacting to the criticism on the live telecast of Mr. Bhagwat’s speech, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said, “Prasar Bharti takes its own decisions. Private channels are showing it. How can you stop DD from showing what others are already showing?”
“We are not the Hindu Swayamsewak Sangh but an organisation committed to national interest. Those who are calling us a Hindu organisation should refer to the broader definition of Hindutva given by Bhagwatji,” an RSS official told The Hindu .
