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PRANAB Mukherjee Expected To Attend RSS Function In Nagpur

EX President of India Pranab Kumar Mukherjee is expected to attend a programme of the RSS at Nagpur in June, an English TV channel reports citing informed sources. Mukherjee, an erudite scholar in Bangla, English and Sanskrit, had been associated with the country’s oldest political organisation Congress in various capacities for over four decades, was invited to be the chief guest at the valedictory function of Sangh Shiksha Varg — a training camp for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh volunteers — at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur on June 7.The former president has accepted the invitation, the RSS functionary said.”The 25-daytraining will conclude on June 7 for which former President Pranab Mukherjee has been invited and he has given his consent. The official announcement on the same will be made in a day or two,” he said. The 25-day-long ‘Sangh Shiksha Varg-Trutiya Varsh’ (third year) is presently underway at the Hedgewar Smriti Mandir premises in the city’s Reshimbagh area. Around 708 Swayamsevaks (volunteers) from across the country are undergoing in the training camp. India’s first woman Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited the Hedgewar Smruti Mandir, memorial of RSS founder K B Hedgewar, and met senior Sangh leader Bhaiyyaji Joshi.Incidentally, RSS, which is for a  casteless society and women empowerment, was founded in 1925 by Dr  Keshav Baliram Hedgewar  who passed away at the age of 51 in 1940. He was a qualified doctor from Kolkata’s National Medical College. Hedgewar was a political protégé of B. S. Moonje, a Tilakite Congressman, National President of Hindu Mahasabha and social activist based in Nagpur. Moonje had sent Hedgewar to Kolkata for medical studies. In Kolkata , Hedgewar became a member of the Anushilan Samiti, an anti-British revolutionary group and was able to gain confidence of its leaders. After Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s demise in 1920, like his other followers in Nagpur, Hedgewar opposed some of the programmes adopted by Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi for freedom movement. Gandhi’s stance on the Khilafat issue was a cause for concern to Hedgewar, and ‘cow protection’ was not on the Congress agenda. Hence, Hedgewar along with other Tilakities quit Gandhiji’s camp. He broke the British law landing himself in jail for a year. After being released in 1922, Hedgewar was distressed at the lack of organisation among the Congress volunteers for the independence struggle. Without proper mobilisation and organisation, he felt that the patriotic youth of the country could never achieve independence from British rule. He also felt the need for creating an independent organisation was based on the country’s traditions and history. According to R S S journals, after returning to Nagpur from Kolkata becoming a physician, Hedgewar organized anti-British activities through the Kranti Dal and participated in Tilak’s Home Rule campaign in 1918.He was convinced that revolutionary activities alone were not enough to overthrow the powerful and merciless British. He was influenced by   Vinay Damodar Savarkar’s (1883-1966) Hindutva, published in Nagpur in 1923, and later meeting him in the Ratnagiri prison two years later .RSS officially agrees that Hedgewar was influenced by Savarkar to create the RSS with the objective of strengthening the Hindu society.

 

 

 

 

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