Modi gets political pinch from RSS on poll promises

Nagpur: On the eve of the Narendra Modi government completing one year in office, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) dropped a bombshell on Monday by saying it expects all election promises made by the BJP to be fulfilled before the end of the five-year term. These poll promises include building of a Ram temple at Ayodhya, scrapping of Article 370 and a law against religious conversions.
“We expect promises mentioned in the BJP manifesto to be kept,” said ‘Sah Sampark Pramukh’ and former ‘prant pramukh” of Jammu and Kashmir Arun Kumar. Though not the top boss, Kumar looked very senior and well versed with the RSS perspective. He was assigned to brief mediapersons at the ongoing annual summer camp of the RSS. In a surprising departure from RSS norms, he willingly took questions of political nature from the media at the RSS’ Reshimbagh facility, where the camp is being held.
Usually, from middle-level leaders onwards, every Sangh functionary is trained to stick to the script and repeat well-rehearsed lines on matters related to politics, especially the BJP. Till the current chief Mohan Bhagwat took over, the RSS maintained a firm facade of being a socio-cultural, nationalistic organization that stays aloof from politics. Of late, with ministers and party men making a beeline to call on Bhagwat, the facade has slipped a bit.
Arun Kumar was candid in his replies to all questions and, chancing on the rare opportunity, newshounds latched on to him. Finally, other functionaries intervened and wound up the briefing by urging reporters to “have tea and snacks.” Pracharak pramukh Manmohan Vaidya and Nand Kumar of Kerala were seated behind the mediapersons as Arun Kumar held forth on various issues.
Kumar even defended defence minister Manohar Parrikar, who, a day after meeting RSS chief Bhagwat last Sunday, spoke of the need to use “terrorists to eliminate terrorists”. Pakistan, he averred, is dominated by Punjabis and several provinces like Sindh and Baluchistan are fighting that. The Indian government has in the past supported these movements across the border, he said.
On scrapping Article 370, Arun Kumar, however, said there was a need to rise above vote bank politics and the political parties should evolve a consensus in national interest.
Kumar said the Sangh shikshavargs (training camps) were becoming more popular and for the final year training this time a strict screening was done to select 876 participants from across the nation for the ongoing summer camp. These participants in the age group 18 to 40 paid an entry fee of Rs1,000 plus expenses on travel to reach here. They include 198 students, 20 engineers, 115 employed, 19 lawyers, 60 farmers, two doctors and three journalists. “They speak 16 languages. But here they are one, taking instructions in national language Hindi,” Arun Kumar noted.
The camp commenced from May 11 and will conclude with RSS supremo Bhagwat’s address on June 4. BJP president Amit Shah, union home minister Rajnath Singh and defence minister Parrikar have visited the camp, which has a daily regime from 4.30am to 10pm.
RSS THIRD YEAR CAMP STATS
Total participants 876
Teachers 164
Farmers60
Employed115
Businessmen89
Workers32
Engineers20
Lawyers19
Doctors2
Students198