Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale on Wednesday said youth aspirations and grievances require attention and dialogue, even as he accused “anarchic forces” within and outside the country of trying to provoke and misuse youth for political interests, social division, and violence.
Hosabale announced a major organisational restructuring. That opposition is no longer there, and the situation has changed. He said there has been a 150% increase in RSS shakhas in West Bengal over the past year, coinciding with the formation of the BJP’s government in the state for the first time. Hosabale said a programme in Port Blair drew over 5,000 participants, including people from 13 smaller islands across the Andaman region.
“Earlier, we faced direct and physical opposition while trying to run shakhas there.
“There are ways to channelise it. But to misuse it, to do political selfishness in it, to try to break society in it, or to use violence, should absolutely not be done. The comments came against the backdrop of protests against paper leaks, which led to then Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation in July, and against alleged irregularities in electoral roll revisions. He maintained that RSS is not separate from society but an effort to organise it.
Hosabale referred to the 1970s JP movement under socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan’s leadership against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government, and said every young generation gets a feeling of anti-establishment. We oppose this,” he said following a three-day annual meeting of RSS, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ideological fount, in Indore. He said addressing genuine youth concerns, preventing disruptive forces from gaining influence, and encouraging socially conscious citizens to actively counter such tendencies were among the issues discussed at the meeting. Hosabale referred to “regime change” calls and said political change through elections and democracy is legitimate, but creating unrest, division or violence is not in society’s interest. He said no law mandates RSS’s registration. “The organisation functions in accordance with the Constitution and has received judicial support when permissions were denied in states such as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka,” he said.
