By Vaibhav Jha / The Indian Express
The three-day annual All-India Representatives Meet of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) began on Friday morning at Pirana village of Ahmedabad with its chief Mohan Bhagwat helming the affairs at the strategic meet, as the organization aims to open 1 lakh shakhas (branches) by 2025, which will mark 100 years of its foundation.
As many as 1,284 representatives of the sangh all across India have arrived for the Akhil Bharatiya Pratnidhi Sabha, which is being held at Shree Nishkalanki Narayan Tirthdham Prernapith.
These also include representatives from 36 sister organisations of the RSS including Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, Mazdoor Sangh among others. Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda and general secretary BL Santhosh are also part of the meet.
The sangh functionaries and representatives will participate in several closed door meetings with Bhagwat and sarkaryavah (general secretary) Dattatreya Hosabale to decide on the organisation’s future course of action.
According to Sangh leaders, the organization plans to expand 1 lakh shakhas from its current 66,000 shakhas active across the country.
In a press conference organized at the venue on Friday morning, Manmohan Vaid, joint general secretary, RSS said, “The activities of the sangh had slowed down after Covid-19 lockdown and since March 2020, we have resumed our work in 98.6% of the places where we were active. A total of 60,000 shakhas are running currently out of which more than 60 per cent are being run by school and college students. We intend to reach to one lakh shakhas by 2025 which will mark 100 years of RSS foundation. We have seen particular interest shown by youth aged between 20 to 35 years of age who want to join the sangh but are not aware of the procedure. From 2017 to 2022, every year 1.25 lakh youth have filled details on our website.”
Vaid further said that of the 1,284 representatives, 414 are volunteers of Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal, 178 are Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi elected from 3.5 lakh active workers, 51 are sangathan mantris and 540 are prachar pramukh.
Vaid said that the three-day meet will see Sangh leaders discuss key issues in contemporary times including promoting social harmony to bridge caste divide.
“Several swayamsevaks are working in the area of societal change where social harmony is a key issue. A message is to be given against the caste divide and the ongoing practise of discrimination of higher and lower in order to divide the society. That all of us are one sons of Bharat Mata in the society,” said Vaid.
This story first appeared on indianexpress.com