The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will step up a campaign against “love jihad” and unlawful religious conversion via enticements, whereas getting ladies, Dalits and Different Backward Lessons (OBCs) to be the torchbearers of its “samajik sadbhav (social harmony)” agenda that additionally overlaps with the Sangh’s bigger design of Hindu unity.
This has emerged after a number of conferences that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has held as a part of his ongoing Awadh Prant go to in Lucknow.
For organisational functions, the RSS has divided Uttar Pradesh into six elements – Braj, Meerut (each west UP), Kanpur-Bundelkhand, Awadh, Gorakhpur and Kashi (Varanasi).
Love jihad is a time period coined by Sangh’s affiliate Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) to outline Hindu ladies being lured by Muslim males via faux id to enter a relationship and for being transformed to Islam.
It has additionally been determined that the Sangh would press the accelerator on its campaign to enlist ideologically inclined youths. The method would achieve momentum within the coming months. The transfer holds particular significance for 2 causes – the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, now about six months away, and the Sangh’s centenary celebrations in September 2025. Particular coaching camps or workshops to introduce kids to the Sangh’s ideology and functioning are being held, RSS cadres indicated.
“It has been determined to step up the Sangh’s outreach campaign in rural areas, apart from urgent the accelerator on anti-national actions, love jihad and religious conversion via enticements,” mentioned an RSS chief privy to the discussions held in Bhagwat’s presence.
‘Matantaran’ (religious conversion via power or enticements) and love jihad have lengthy been on the Sangh’s agenda however obtained additional impetus since 2017, when a “double engine” BJP governments on the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh have been in energy.
The RSS leaders additionally make it clear that the campaign was not directed against Muslims per se, however against “misguided youths”.
The Sangh has already floated a Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) to join with “nationalist Muslims”, a course of that will proceed, RSS leaders mentioned.
Marginalised however numerically dominant and politically necessary communities have additionally been on the Sangh agenda. OBCs and Dalits have been the mainstays of the BJP’s phenomenal success in Uttar Pradesh since 2014 when the occasion efficiently did away with the notion of it largely being a celebration of higher castes and merchants.
This transformation, an RSS cadre admitted, can be being observed inside the Sangh whose cades don’t use their surnames to conceal their caste id, reflecting Sangh’s bigger design on Hindu unity and grooming cadres with ‘nationalistic intent.’
The Sangh and all its 36 associates will look to improve ladies’s participation, particularly in creating consciousness on numerous points central to the RSS thought, Sangh leaders mentioned.
The Ladies’s Reservation Invoice has solely lately been handed in each homes of Parliament. The BJP has described the historic determination as one which took place below the management of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a former RSS pracharak.
Additionally it is a part of the Sangh’s “samajik sadbhav” (social harmony) agenda. An RSS division with the identical identify has already begun holding consultative meets on subjects like – ‘rashtriyata-samajik sadbhav vimarsh (nationality and social harmony)’ – the title of 1 such meet held in Lucknow on Sunday.
“A nation is weakened if it lacks social harmony and that’s the reason RSS has been working on this regard,” senior RSS functionary Kripa Shankar mentioned.
“The Sangh has all the time been of the view that temples, crematoriums and wells ought to be frequent for all,” he added, focusing on the necessity to develop a nationalistic outlook over and above emotions of caste, class and group.
