Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Thursday met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Chief Mohan Bhagwat at the Sangh founthead office in New Delhi to discuss the recent developments in the party, including the elevation of Narendra Modi as Election Campaign Committee head and the Janata Dal-United's decision to quit the national Democratic Alliance.
'Someone who has lost a dear one to Covid; that person is not going to forget and will not vote for the BJP.'
The goings-on at the three-day Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh conclave, which is being attended by 390 delegates, are shrouded in secrecy.
Much depends on the BJP's electoral performance in next year's assembly elections. If the party fares well in UP and some states like Goa and Gujarat, it will be able to fob off the attempt at a reappraisal of its Hindutva doctrine, observes Amulya Ganguli.
Bhagwat referred to Gandhi's writings in Harijan in which he had declared himself a "fanatic Sanatani Hindu".
Using the Mahabharat reference as a leitmotif, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday claimed that an atmosphere of fear prevails all around with a group of six trapping the entire country in a 'chakravyuh' he promised would be broken by the INDIA bloc.
Mohan Bhagwat said the temple would be constructed in the same grandeur as it existed before, using the "same stones" under the guidance of those who were the flag-bearers of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement for the last 25 years.
Voting was underway on Friday in 102 Lok Sabha seats spread across 21 states and Union territories in the first of the seven phases of the world's largest electoral exercise, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging voters to exercise their franchise in record numbers.
Addressing a lecture series 'Positivity Unlimited', Bhagwat said the country should stay united and work as a team in these testing times, instead of pointing fingers at each other.
The 93-year-old leader was admitted to the hospital on June 11.
"Debate is just an excuse, the real target of the RSS-BJP is social justice," Priyanka Gandhi said.
RSS on Thursday made a series of tweets quoting Bhagwat on the issue.
The RSS has decided that this year the festive occasion will only be addressed by RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat and not by chief guests.
"The RSS runs nearly 60,000 daily shakhas (branches) across the country and 97.5 per cent shakhas have started functioning again after the easing of COVID-19 related restrictions," joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya said.
'I'm sure the central government must have been thinking over the technicalities, that how to pave the way for construction of the temple.'
He arrived at the RSS headquarters in Mahal area in Nagpur around 9.25 pm and left after one and a half hours.
"There is no place for Hindus in the world except India," sources said quoting Bhagawat.
Modi's tweet comes after Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati objected to the slogan being used in favour of BP's PM candidate
'No one is propagating RSS ideology as a government officer.'
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 government which is so inefficient, what hope of justice can we have from them?' RSS leader Indresh Kumar tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore.
What were our political leaders up to on the weekend?
A new idol of Ram Lalla sculpted by Mysuru-based Arun Yogiraj has been selected for installation at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, temple trust's general secretary Champat Rai said on Monday.
A day after Narendra Modi's long meeting with top Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sevak brass, BJP president Rajnath Singh on Sunday met senior Sangh leaders at the RSS office in New Delhi.
Terming the ordinance promulgated by the Union cabinet to implement the Food Security Bill as a "cruel joke" on democracy, Bharatiya Janat Party President Rajnath Singh said that his party would not oppose the passage of the bill in Parliament but seek amendments to it.
What some of our leaders were up to over the weekend.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's action against its two members for their controversial comments against Prophet Mohammed cap a series of statements from its top brass and also Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat that sought to distance their organisations from shrill and combative religious rhetoric, even as it has brought to fore the conflict within their wide sphere of support.
Former President A P J Abdul Kalam had once cancelled his visit to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters in Nagpur for an event after friends warned him that he would be labelled as an "RSS sympathiser", claims a new book, Kalam: The Untold Story.
'In its history, the RSS has never seen success as it is seeing now. And it wants to extend their base.'
"It is necessary for all to oppose this together," RSS spokesperson Sunil Ambekar said.
Sources say even some senior pracharaks are in the race to bag top positions in the government.
In his nearly 80-minute long speech on the first day of the three-day conclave, Bhagwat also asserted that RSS is "most democratic" and not dictatorial, insisting that it neither imposes its ideology nor remote-controls its various affiliates, apparently rejecting criticism that the Bharatiya Janata Party is controlled by it.
What some of our leaders were up to on Thursday and Thursday.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat discussed reasons behind the BJP dismal performance in Delhi.
The Nagpur Anti Terrorism Squad unit has arrested a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist from Jammu and Kashmir who had allegedly conducted a recce of Dr Hedgewar Smriti Bhawan of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Nagpur, Maharashtra, last year, an official said on Wednesday.
Here are the 10 key issues likely to be the centre of discussion in the seven-phase general elections that begin on April 19.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has said that this is a favourable time to organise all Hindus in India.
He said no matter how much evolution happens in technology, India could never become a fully cashless economy.
Bharti would visit the site after the official ceremony.
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.
