Ajay Mittal from Meerut
Sunday, February 25, 2018 was witness to the biggest ever congregation of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) swayamsevakas. About 2.86 lakh swayamsevaks in complete uniform participated for a two-hour long event. It was addressed by the RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat. The function was presided over by Peethadhishwar of Joona Akhara (said to be the biggest order of Hindu saints) Swami Avadheshanand Giri ji Maharaj, and Jain Muni Viharsh Sagarji Maharaj was present as a special guest. RSS Kshetra Sanghachalak Dr Darshan Lal Arora and Kuladhipati of Gurukul Prabhat Ashram Swami Vivekananda also shared the dais.
Addressing the gathering Shri Mohan Bhagwat said when we talk of kattar Hindu (staunch/unyielding Hindu), nobody needs to fear, since it means kattar ahinsa (staunch non-violence), kattar aparigrah (staunch renunciation), kattar brahmcharya (staunch celibacy), kattar asteya (staunch non-stealing) and kattar parakram (unyielding valour). Our staunchness means staunch magnanimity towards all.
He said the world thinks that to be one and united, all diversities must yield place to uniformity—one language, one way of worship and so on. But we don”t kill diversity, we celebrate it. Diversity is inborn to the nature. That”s why we call the whole world steeped in diversity a family—vasudhaiv kutumbkam.
Rashtrodaya at a Glance
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Shri Bhagwat said experiments done by mankind during the last 2000 years have led to comfort and convenience, but not to happiness and contentment. The path to the latter has been shown by old Hindu wisdom, which takes a holistic approach towards life. But even the best of notions needs strength behind it to be acceptable. Otherwise, it is not only rejected, but trampled upon. Since it is only the Hindu thought that can save humanity, there is need to strengthen it and also the society that is its carrier. Sangh is working for the same.
| Online Registration The registration was made online paying a fee of Rs 50. A total of 3,13,393 registrations were made out of which 95,179 belonged to urban and 2,18,214 to rural areas. Age wise 2,24,606 were below 40 years and 88,787 above meaning thereby that the overwhelming majority was young. 96,304 students, 70,580 businessmen, 53,568 employees, 46,572 farmers, 12,534 teachers, 33,348 advocates, 4,205 doctors and 25,181 others got them registered |
Shri Bhagwat was at his philosophical best while articulating about the Hindu way of life. He spoke for about 34 minutes. Three lakh people who listened to him with rapt attention included invited matrishakti (Rashtra Sevika Samiti, Durga Vahini etc.), about 250 Hindu dharmacharya sitting on a separate 20 feet-high dais, about 200 heads of different castes/sub-castes/clans of Hindu society. Family members of Sangh Pracharakas hailing from Meerut Prant, but working outside were also invited.
Swami Awadheshanand Giriji Maharaj and Muni Viharsh Sagarji Maharaj also addressed. Swayamsevaks displayed physical exercises also.
| Sant and Sangh together can change Bharat Jain Muni Pujya Viharsh Sagar Maharaj, who was a special guest at Rashtrodaya, said that Sant and Sangh can together transform the country. He eulogised the RSS for its service works spread all over Bharat. He recalled his guru as having said that the Sangh is always devoted to seva (service). His guru too was a swayamsevak. The Muni was all praise for the promptness shown by the RSS on occasions of natural calamities and warfare with our unruly neighbours China and Pakistan. The Muni expressed the view that the religion that we follow is our internal matter, confined to our homes. But we are all Hindus outside, that is, speaking nationally and culturally, all Indians are Hindus irrespective of religions and ways of worship. He also emphasised on the crying need to save water and daughter. |
Exemplary Discipline
The Rashtrodaya Ground spread to over 650 acres was vacated by 2.86 lakh Sangh workers within barely 25 minutes of completion of the event without displaying any indiscipline. No litters, no empty plastic bottles were left behind. The 5000 buses and more than about equal number of other vehicles that were parked at 6 places in over 600 acres of land did not create any traffic jam. All vehicles were parked just as swayamsevakas fall in line, called sampat in the RSS. The Additional Director General of Police Prashant Kumar and Commissioner Meerut Prabhat Kumar commented that the police and the administration need to learn many a lesson from the RSS people.
Largest Ever Congregation
Rashtrodaya was the name given to the largest ever congregation of the RSS swayamsevakas organised in Meerut on February 25. Meerut Prant of the Sangh comprises of 14 administrative districts of Western Uttar Pradesh—Meerut, Baghpat, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Bulandshahar, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad and Hapur. It has 243 cities and 10,580 villages. The urban areas are further divided into 1,553 Bastis, each of them having an average population of about 8,000.
| ‘I too was a swayamsevak Swami Avadheshanand Giri Maharaj, who is the presiding saint of Joona Akhara, one of the largest congregations of the Hindu saints, said he too was a member of the RSS during his childhood, and he still remembered the inspiring words of the Sangh prayer “twadiyay karyay baddha katiyam” (I have girded up my loins for the divine national task). He said that as soon as the Hindu recollects his strength, all fear and misgivings about his future and the country”s well being will vanish. He said Hindu children and adults need rashtriya sanskaras alike to defend their culture and nation. |
The RSS swayamsevaks decided in July 2017 that a Herculean effort should be made to reach out to all Bastis and villages, make registrations in each and everyone of them for the sake of a mammoth programme to be addressed by the Sarsanghachalak sometime in early 2018. The number of shakhas in rural areas of the Prant never went beyond around 1700-1800. Keeping the total number of villages in mind, it was a challenging task. Not only the villages, all the urban Bastis had to be covered.
During the month of October as many as 5,700 short-term vistarakas (whole-time Sangh workers) were sent to different villages. Other villages were allotted to 2,380 Pravasi Karykartas who spent a number of hours every day for three weeks. About 115 week-long training camps were held for the new recruits to train them to open and run new shakhas. More than 8000 new workers were thus made available. The whole Prant was abuzz with Sangh activity in a very big way.
Now began the gigantic task of registering names for the event for which the date had been fixed as February 25. The aim set was to approach every Basti and every village for the purpose. The registration was to be made online. A fee of Rs. 50 was to be paid for the purpose.
As it turned out, a total of 3,13,393 registrations were made out of which 95,179 belonged to urban and 2,18,214 to rural areas. Of these, age wise 2,24,606 were below 40 years and 88,787 above meaning thereby that the overwhelming majority was young. 96,304 students, 70,580 businessmen, 53,568 employees, 46,572 farmers, 12,534 teachers, 33,348 advocates, 4,205 doctors and 25,181 others got them registered. They were taught some physical exercises (yoga and asanas) which were to be demonstrated at the event.
The Bhoomi Poojan
A huge open land measuring about 1,250 acres at Jagriti Vihar Extension was meanwhile earmarked for the programme. About 600 acres were kept for vehicles parking and the rest 650 acres for the event itself. RSS Sarkaryavah Shri Bhaiyaji Joshi came to Meerut on December 10, 2017 to perform bhoomi poojan. About 15,000 workers from all over the Prant were present on the occasion.
Now began the work of levelling the vast stretch of ground. This too was an undaunting task. The Aaawas-Vikas Parishad of UP government was entangled with a big number of farmers in court cases over the amount of compensations awarded. They were not allowing the Parishad to take possession of their lands. They were agitating for quite some time. The RSS leaders wisely resolved the matter with the agitating farmers and they were allowed to prepare the ground for Rashtrodaya.
It is noteworthy that some Muslim farmers, who had crops of potato standing in their fields, vacated them prematurely to make the fields available to the RSS. Not only that, they donated quintals of potatoes for the programme, an extremely noble gesture by all measures.
The Colossal Stage
The stage built for the mammoth gathering was required to be equally colossal. Considering the fact that the last row of swayamsevakas shall have a distance of about 2 kilometres from it, the stage was planned to be 35-feet high with an imposing backdrop of almost 100 feet. Its width was 200 feet and depth a hundred feet. It had two lower layers, one at 20 feet and another at 30 feet. The backdrop was a half circle painted as the rising sun, with lotus leaves overhead and large paintings of Bharat Mata, Dr. Hedgewar and Guruji Golwalkar at the centre. Behind the stage a lift was installed to carry guests to the 35-feet level. The front of the stage had a 240-feet long chariot-shaped conformation with 4 leaping horses and a lion.
The large 650-acre Rashtrodaya ground had 13 gates for entrance earmarked for various districts, invited guests, women, VIPs and the media. Three lakh Meerut homes prepared food for the Rashtrodaya participants.
Citizens Reach out Across Faith, Caste
The RSS hit upon a novel idea of fetching food for 3-lakh odd Sangh workers to join Rashtrodaya. It distributed empty paper bags to about 3 lakh homes requesting them to put 6 parathas or 8 pooris inside. Thus six lakh food packets were collected from families belonging to all strata, all sects, and all social groups of Hindu society on the eve of the event. Valmikis, Ravidasiyas, Jatavas, and other sections categorised as the Scheduled Castes remained in the forefront of this work. Even the Muslims were glad to cook food for Rashtrodaya.
Ganesh Bhavar, a Valmiki sanitation worker of municipal corporation Meerut and residing in Suraj Kund area, was happy that some RSS workers came to his house and gave him two empty paper bags “Rashtrodaya” inscribed upon, and asked for food for the great event. Sujata Bhavar, his daughter said with pride, “It is a matter of great honour that the food which we will prepare will be distributed among the people who will turn up at the RSS meet. Our packet can reach rich, poor or people from any other caste, but there will be no differentiation of any kind in the packets and this just brings people from all castes, sub-castes together.” Sunder Lal Bharunda, general secretary, Mahrishi Valmiki Buddhijivi Manch, said, “The entire notion of untouchability has been done away with by this programme because people of all castes and social status have come together for the cause.” Bharunda”s wife made food for RSS volunteers.
Even the Muslims
Mohd. Afzal, 50, was certainly surprised when a few RSS volunteers came over to his house seeking food to fill two packets for RSS activists. He was a little bit overwhelmed. He asked if he could contribute two more. “I wanted to rise above religion and caste and contribute in my own humble way to the biggest event ever held in our city. After all the people gathering here are our guests. My wife has ensured that the flour for the parathas and pooris is prepared fresh so that they don”t become hard by the time they are delivered to the guests”, said Afzal, an advocate by profession.
Tahir Islam, a building material supplier, resides at Purva Faiyaz Ali downtown Meerut. He too got two packets of food prepared at his home for the Rashtrodaya volunteers. “Why can”t we show a little bit of hospitality to people coming over from other cities and villages for a big event? It is demand of human etiquette.” he says.
Habib Khan was one of the Muslim swayamsevaks present in Rashtrodaya. He is better known as Acharya Habib in Meerut. He is basically an astrologer who makes horoscopes based on Bharatiya system of astrology and even thousands of Muslims approach him for this. He is a gau-bhakta and a Shiv-bhakta. He has constructed a Shiv temple in the village Singhpur. He led the Sarva Panth Samadar Manch, an offshoot of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, in late 1990″s. He too was dressed in the RSS uniform like others. He was also a participant in the Samarasta Mahashivir of 1998 of three days” duration held at Meerut in which 51,000 swayamsevaks took part. Another Muslim swayamsevak was Syed Murtza (40) from Amroha, of course in full RSS uniform. He was associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad 24 years ago. After passing out from Jamia Milia Islamia, an MA, BEd he joined the BJP and began joining RSS functions off and on. He is currently a teacher at a school in Amroha.
Nine Food Centres
There are nine roads converging on to Meerut. A food centre each at about 10 – 15 kilometres from the city was opened a day before the programme. All the 6-lakh odd food packets were transported to these centres on the 24th in numbers estimated on the basis of registrations done. These centres also had medical facilities and toilets. About a thousand workers were employed at these centres to facilitate proper distribution of food packets. The centres also gave a bottle of water inside a backbag made up of cloth to be hung on the backs and carried to the Rashtrodaya ground. A food packet was additionally provided for the return journey.
Eco-friendly Arrangements
The whole Rashtrodaya arrangements showed a keen concern for ecology. There was the least use of plastic material and maximum use of wooden and paper. The plates on which food was served were made of leaves of betelnuts. These were brought from Karnataka. These leaves are hard like metal, and dissolve inside the earth. No thermocol was used anywhere. Tea was served in cups of hard paper. Unfortunately, no substitute could be found for plastic water bottles. Hence, all the swayamsevakas were instructed to carry their empty plastic bottles in the paper bag provided to them back to their places, without in any case throwing them on the Rashtrodaya ground. It is satisfying to note that no bottle was found on the ground after the event was over. This fact has been noted by Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala and Hindustan with heaps of praise showered on the disciplined RSS workers.
About 600 swayamsevaks joined Rashtrodaya from Deoband and they included veteran swayamsevak Shri Rajkishor Gupta who has been closely associated with the late Deendayal Upadhyaya.
Shri Bhagwat on February 26 had a meeting with the leaders of RSS associated organistaions at Madhav Kunj, the RSS office in Meerut. Shri Bhagwat appreciated the swayamsevaks for the successful organisation of the Rashtrodaya. During the meeting Shri Bhagwat stressed on connecting the new persons to any of the organisational activity. He also directed the workers to stay away from politics and focus more on social service. He said to be a swayamsevak is good but the Sangh should reflect in their daily conduct. He also stressed on focusing more on the rural areas. Emphasising on strengthening social harmony, he said every swayamsevak should remain alert against the elements which try to disturb harmony of the society.
(With inputs from Surender Singhal)
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