“THAKUR Ramsinghji lived the life like a veervrati. He had immense courage, fearlessness and commitment to the dhyeya (goal). The best tribute to such a dedicated life is to follow his ideal and finish the tasks that he left unfinished,” said RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat, while paying tribute to Thakur Ramsinghji at a condolence meeting held at Keshav Kunj, New Delhi on September 17. The condolence meeting was organised by the Delhi Prant of RSS. Thakur Ramsingh had passed away in Ludhiana on September 6 in the age of 96. He was among the oldest Sangh Pracharaks from RSS first generation.
RSS Sarkaryavah Shri Bhaiyaji Joshi, Uttar Kshetra Sanghachalak Dr Bajrang Lal Gupt and Delhi Prant Sanghachalak Shri Ramesh Prakash Sharma were also present. Prominent among who were present on the occasion included former Sarsanghachalak Shri KS Sudarshan, Akhil Bharatiya Pracharak Pramukh Shri Madan Das, Sahsarkaryavahs Shri Suresh Soni and Shri Dattatreya Hosabale, veteran leader of Bharatiya Jan Sangh Prof Balraj Madhok, former Governor Dr Bhai Mahavir, former Governor Shri Kidar Nath Sahni, VHP president Shri Ashok Singhal, senior VHP leader Acharya Giriraj Kishore, Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Dr Manmohan Vaidya, Akhil Bharatiya Sampark Pramukh Shri Hastimal, Akhil Bharatiya Sewa Pramukh Shri Sitaram Kedilaya, national convenor of Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti Shri Dina Nath Batra, founder of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat Sardar Chiranjiv Singh, National Executive Members of RSS Shri Indresh Kumar and Shri Ram Madhav, senior Pracharak Shri Madhubhai Kulkarni, Shri Dinesh Kamath of Samskrit Bharati, Shri Prabhakar Kelkar of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, Shri Yogendra of Sanskar Bharati, Uttar Kshetra Pracharak Shri Rameshvar, Delhi Prant Pracharak Shri Prem Kumar, Mayor of Delhi Shri Prithviraj Sahni and many others.
Shri Bhagwat described Thakur Ramsinghji as a Pracharak with extraordinary strength. “Once a saint offered him a huge piece of land, but he very politely rejected the offer saying that he did not need such a big piece of land. It indicates that only Sangh work was supreme for him and nothing else. He gave the message that we should not amass more than our requirement. If we have true commitment and complete dedication to the cause, we do not face the shortage of resources. Just remembering him is not enough we should emulate his ideals,” Shri Bhagwat added.
Describing Thakur Ramsinghji ‘an ideal Pracharak’ VHP president Shri Ashok Singhal said his life needs to be followed by all the Sangh Pracharaks today. “Thakur Ramsinghji was in favour of an uncompromising Hindu society and he never supported deviation on the basic ideals. The prominent work he did was to conduct research on the folk songs to know the real and glorious history of the country. He did so much work in his life but never expected publicity for the work. Whenever there was an occasion of publicity he pushed the workers forward,” he said.
Prof Balraj Madhok who had made Thakur Ramsinghji a swayamsevak, described him his elder brother. “While studying in the college at Lahore we developed close friendship. We used to play hockey together and used to eat carrot and radish at my home. It was in that friendship that I took him to the Sangh shakha. Later, he became a Pracharak on the call of Shri Madhavrao Muleji. But he was a historian more than a Pracharak. He was always worried of the nation. I felt a personal loss on his demise. The need of the hour is that we all should emulate his sprit of serving the country and also the character he lived in his life,” he said.
Dr Bhai Mahavir said there are lakhs of leaders both in social and political life who are busy in hatching conspiracies against each other but they do not have time to think of the nation. “The country today extremely lacks the leaders like Thakur Ramsinghji who had only one goal and i.e. to take the motherland to the pinnacle of glory. He was very much concerned over the present condition of the country and wanted a change in it. The work of rewriting history that he started needs to be taken up on large-scale. It will be the best tribute to the great soul,” he said.
Shri Kidar Nath Sahni recalled Thakur Ramsinghji’s contribution in saving Amritsar city after the Partition. He had protected the city with the help of more than 2000 swayamsevaks for six months. “Not only this, his work in looking after the needs of the people coming from Pakistan after the Partition was also admired by all. He was not only a brilliant student in his school and college days but was also a perfect organiser. He created an army of highly dedicated workers. The work of rectifying the history of the country that he started in later stage of his life makes him a real karmayogi,” he said.
Sardar Chiranjiv Singh said Thakur Ramsinghji emphasised more on the word ‘Hindu’. “He used to say that this single word can unite the whole society. He was always active to keep the Sikhs united with rest of the Hindu society. He also played a key role in the formation of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat. He used to say that the Sangh shakha is the remedy to all the social disease. He wanted to develop brave, dedicated and strong swayamsevaks in shakhas so that the whole society can unitedly foil all kinds of invasions on it,” he said.
Shri Haribhau Vajhe of Itihas Sankalan Yojna said that Thakur Ramsinghji lived the life according to the pledge taken by a swayamsevak in the shakha. He remembered the contribution of four stalwarts (Moropant Pingle, Thakur Ramsingh, Shri Ram Sathe and Shri Prabhakar Pant) in the expansion of Itihas Sankalan Yojan work across the country.
Smt Anita Gupta of Baba Saheb Apte Smarak Samiti said Thakur Ramsinghji knew how to identify one’s talent and how to make him/her active in the organisation. He was completely an organisational man who not only expanded the Itihas Sankalan Yojna work but also brought so many scholars, intellectuals and historians into its fold.
Uttar Kshetra Pracharak Shri Rameshwar said Thakur Ramsinghji was worried for the work until his last breath. “He specially went to Neeri from hospital to start a new project. When I went to see him in the hospital he told me to provide an efficient worker for office work. He was worried for the work even while struggling for life in the hospital. His life is an inspiration of all of us,” he said.
Shri Ishwardas Mahajan, former close associate of Thakur Ramsinghji, pointed out that he was always worried for his fellow workers. He used to concentrate on individual worker and make all efforts to mould him into a good worker. Delhi Prant Sanghachalak Shri Ramesh Prakash described him a devdurlabh worker made by the Sangh and said that he had good knowledge of the history. The condolence meeting concluded with observing a two minute silence.
(FOC)
