Love jihad is not a communal issue, but a shameful act, as it hurts the dignity of women. Therefore the administration should take a serious view of it,” said RSS Sarkarayavah Shri Bhaiyaji Joshi while talking to mediapersons in Lucknow on October 19, after the conclusion of the RSS Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal meeting. Around 390 delegates representing 41 prants, 11 kshetra and 33 organsations participated in the meet. During the meeting, the prant level office-bearers presented their activity report and described their special programmes. About 33 allied organisations also submitted their reports.

Shri Joshi said there could be several critical remarks against the RSS but they are not worried about it, because people love us and support us. He claimed that criticism of the RSS does not stand as more than 1.25 lakh youths have joined the organisation last year. Reiterating RSS ideology on Hindutava Joshi made it clear that the organisation continues to apprise majority community of their rights and duties. “We are not anti-Muslims. Whoever wants to join RSS is free to do so and there is no disparity on the name of religion or caste,” he said.

The Sarkaryavah said, Sri Ram Temple already exists in Ayodhya and people worship there on daily basis. The only thing is to construct a grand temple. Since the matter is in the Supreme Court, the Centre should try to remove the hurdles and fulfill the promise made to the people, Bahiyyaji said. However, he praised the BJP government at the Centre for the recent decisions, adding that the decisions are always taken by the BJP leaders themselves, and the RSS never interferes in any political matters. We only want a change in the governance because the last government was very corrupt. So we worked for 100 per cent voting, even though we did not achieve the target.

Briefing the mediapersons of the deliberations of second day RSS Sahsarkaryavah Shri Dattatreya Hosbale on October 18 said the Sangh swayamsevaks have always rushed to offer help at times of natural calamity. For instance, during recent weeks the swayamsevaks have actively taken part in the rescue and relief operations at Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya and Vishakhapatnam. He lauded the government for its stand against Pakistani shelling and condoled the death of security personnel and civilians in the Pak firing. Giving details of the social service done by the RSS in the recent cyclone in Andhra Pradesh and during floods in Jammu and Kashmir, he said in Andhra, 600 workers were engaged in 46 places for rescue and relief works along with four medical teams. In J&K, 3,885 volunteers were engaged at 1,500 places besides there were 140 medical camps where 21,000 people were treated. In Meghalaya too, during recent floods, 200 workers were engaged in 150 villages, he said.

Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Dr Manmohan Vaidya said historian Ram Chandra Guha and other comrades created a needless controversy over live telecast of the speech of Sarsanghachalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat during Vijaydashmi function in Nagpur. He explained that historians such as Guha were worried that people would now know about the correct facts and untruths spewed against the RSS by comrades. He added that RSS considers every Bharatiya citizen as Hindus. It does not discriminate against anybody on the basis of their religion, caste or class. He added that people from all walks of life and religious affiliations are joining RSS. “We have created the facility on our website for an individual to join RSS. Till 2012, around 1,000 people expressed their desire to join RSS every month using this facility. This increased to 2,500 every month in 2013 and has now touched around 7,000 every month,” he said.

Responding directly on the subject of Muslim’s association with the RSS, Manmohanji said, “Muslims are coming to the Sangh Shiksha Vargas (training camps). All Bharatiya citizens are equal in the RSS, irrespective of their class, caste or religion.” He explained that during last year around 80,000 people (age group in between thirteen and forty) participated in the seven-day Prathamik Shiksha Varga (training camp) for initial training to learn about the working of RSS, and this year this figure has now touched 1.2 lakh.

—SK Pandey from Lucknow