After Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's remarks that rapes were prevalent in India and not in Bharat, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad blamed the 'western model' of lifestyle for growing incidents of sexual assault on women including rape, saying cities were losing the values.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat has sparked outrage with his statement that when he said rape is mainly prevalent in urban India due to western influence and that such crimes against women do not happen in rural areas of the country.The remark that came against the backdrop of the Delhi gangrape incident was slammed by the Congress, CPI-M and women's bodies while the BJP and RSS defended it saying the comment should be taken in proper perspective.
A day after senior BJP leader L K Advani spoke of an "inclusive Hindutva", RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat today said Hindutva believes in peaceful co-existence of all communities.
The police have booked her under sections 124 A(sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion), 500(defamation) and 505 (intent to incite) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66 of the IT Act, he said.
The event brings to fruition the Bharatiya Janata Party's 'mandir' movement that defined its politics for three decades and took it to the heights of power.
The 'Pran Pratishtha' of the idol of Ram Lalla -- the childhood form of Lord Ram -- will be attended by people from all walks of life, including representatives of major spiritual and religious sects of the country and of various tribal communities and prominent personalities.
Speaking at the RSS's annual Vijayadashami rally in Nagpur which was broadcast online and attended 50 swayamsevaks (volunteers) due to the COVID-19 guidelines, Bhagwat said when the Sangh says Hindustan is 'Hindu Rashtra', it does not have any political or power-centered concept in its mind.
In the last 11 years, India and the world witnessed what he stood for, what he promised and did not deliver, and what he actually stood for and practised without fearing how history would judge him. Modi's tenure has been punctuated with headline-grabbing decisions, symbolic gestures, and stage-managed moments that continue to define his leadership and India's politics, points out Ramesh Menon.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj should 'pull up' Nitin Gadkari for his anti-Sonia Gandhi remarks, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh said on Thursday.
Even if someone did something wrong, do not consider everyone guilty. Some people want to misuse it, the RSS chief said in an apparent reference to incidents involving Tablighi Jamaat members after it centre in Delhi emerged as a major coronavirus hotspot.
A day after senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani withdrew his resignation following the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief's call to him, the Sangh on Wednesday said that it is not interfering or managing the affairs of the right-wing party.
The US state department in its annual report to the Congress on international religious freedom has alleged that in India in 2021, attacks on members of the minority communities, including killings, assaults, and intimidation, occurred throughout the year.
'On the one hand it will appeal to pan-Hindu sentiment and on the other opposition to it could well strengthen support for the BJP among Hindu voters.'
"Since RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and other leaders are not scheduled to visit Delhi in the immediate future, I decided to meet them in Nagpur," Advani told media persons on arriving at the Nagpur airport.
The gifts were in a bag that had a striking graphic image of the new temple and of Lord Ram in a very young avatar.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Monday lashed at the Centre for its midnight crackdown on protesters, including women and children, at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, while admitting that it "extended" support to yoga guru Baba Ramdev's agitation.
He, however, said that there have been some 'false cases' of lynching at times that have been filed against some people. Addressing a book-release function in Ghaziabad, Bhagwat said the DNA of all Indians are the same.
What some of our leaders were up to over the weekend...
Dr S Q R Ilyas, head of the BMAC and a senior member of the board, feels that the Sangh Parivar should not have raked up the Ram temple issue. In a candid chat with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Dr Ilyas said the recent proclamation by the RSS, VHP and BJP was a desperate measure to rake up the issue of Hindutva once again
Senior BJP leaders L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj, who are said to be opposed to the declaration of Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate in the next elections, held a dinner meeting with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday to discuss the issue.
Joining a list of leaders who made controversial remarks following the Delhi gangrape incident, Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi on Tuesday said women should not go out with men other than relatives and agreed with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's view that most rapes take place in cities and not villages.
The Bhartiya Janata Party on Wednesday cleared the air about confusion regarding the apparent two versions of the result of the meeting between senior leader L K Advani and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha chief Mohan Bhagwat.
"There is no place for Hindus in the world except India," sources said quoting Bhagawat.
BJP and RSS leaders are once again pushing to remove the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Constitution's Preamble, showing a deeper effort to change India's identity from a diverse, multi-religious republic to a Hindu-first nation, even though they don't have the numbers in Parliament to officially change the Constitution, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Maharashtra BJP chief Nitin Gadkari's visit to New Delhi at a time when RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat was in town has raised speculation of his prospects of becoming the next party president. However, Gadkari himself was non-committal about his prospects and said he would interact with the press later.
'The BJP has ordered the AIMIM to defame the Shiv Sena, to raise questions on Shiv Sena's Hindutva'
Only in the event of the RSS managing to force Modi into accepting a consensual candidate, will the party not continue to 'being' the 'next Congress', observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
He won two terms in office, which was a stunning feat for a leader who used his silence as the most vocal weapon to change the economy and the lives of a billion people, asserts Tarun Vijay, former BJP MP and former Chief Editor, Panchjanya, the RSS weekly.
A day after Bharatiya Janata Party President Rajnath Singh's English bashing, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday said it is an "illusion" that English is the only means of progress.
Addressing a public meeting in Bangalore, he said though it was encouraging to note that Indian companies were acquiring firms globally, incidents of farmers' suicides could not be ignored.
Making it clear that Malegaon blast accused Colonel Srikant Purohit has no links with it, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to set up an independent commission to probe an alleged plot to assassinate its chief Mohan Bhagwat by the former military intelligence officer and efforts to 'malign' the image of the Sangh.
Maharashtra recorded a voter turnout of 58.22 per cent till 5 pm on Wednesday in the elections to the 288-member state legislative assembly, with Gadchiroli district logging more than 69 per cent voting, poll officials said.
"He was an icon of the Indian history and will remain so. There can be a difference of opinion about him, but to look down on him as inferior is not appropriate and justifiable. He was a freedom fighter and a staunch nationalist, but people who follow the Marxist and Leninist ideology are the ones who accuse Savarkar of being a fascist...," Singh said, adding that the hatred towards Savarkar is illogical and unplaced.
"Debate is just an excuse, the real target of the RSS-BJP is social justice," Priyanka Gandhi said.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday came in for flak from non-Bharatiya Janata Party parties for his suggestion that all Hindustanis are Hindus with many leaders wondering if he has read the Constitution and really believes in it.
RSS leader whipped up a political storm for stating that the BJP was restricted to 240 seats, well below the majority mark, in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, due to its "arrogance".
While senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said on Tuesday that Anna Hazare must be praised for the 'good work' he has done in his native village Ralegan Siddhi, he continued his tirade against the social activist's movement and Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said India should find out the intentions of Pakistan and China before extending a hand of friendship as showing naivety or taking a weak stand would harm the country's interests.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, Mohan Bhargwat launched Dr Swamy's book, Hindutva and National Renaissance, in the capital on Monday. The launch comes in the backdrop of Congress's allegations that the RSS has links to Hindu terror network.
A day before the Special Bench of the Allahabad High Court meets to make a last ditch effort to find an amicable solution to the Ayodhya case, leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Vishwa Hindu Parishad held a marathon meeting in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss the issue.
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