As BJP leaders went all out to project the event as a moment of national pride, some leaders were directly critical of the ceremony with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, belonging to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, slamming the state's role in the Ram Temple consecration, saying the line that demarcates religion and state seems to be 'getting thinner and thinner'.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday held a luncheon meeting with senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani and is understood to have discussed important matters related to the future of the party. Bhagwat, who arrived in New Delhi today, spent nearly two hours at the residence of Advani. The two held a one-to-one luncheon meeting. Speculations were rife that the names of some prospective candidates for the post of BJP president were discussed.
'Initially, most people willingly stood for hours in queues to withdraw cash because they believed that after 50 days, black money would come out, some big men would be punished and perhaps jailed. Again, nothing happened.' 'Now the talk is that small people have been punished while the rich and the powerful have got away.' 'The RSS is not going out of its way to counter the view. Let the BJP explain.'
What some of our leaders were up to over the weekend...
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre as one being 'run' by RSS, social activist Teesta Setalvad on Saturday alleged that issues such as 'Sanskritisation' were part of a process to change India into a Hindu state.
"The opposition parties should draw proper lessons from these results and draw up plans to put up an effective united opposition to the BJP state-wise by marshalling all the forces," the CPI-M said in a statement.
Arjun Singh had suggested the organisation's involvement in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
If this election is about Narendra Modi, then it is also about the RSS, notes Mihir S Sharma.
Meena, however, refused to elaborate on the incident, which is seen as an attempt at 'badabandi' -- holing up elected leaders in resorts as a show of strength.
'Putting Yogi Adityanath in the CM's seat two years before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls is something to be read carefully.' 'Opposition parties would be dishonest themselves and unfair to secular people if they failed to unite and work as a single force to defeat the BJP.'
Rahul Gandhi could be where Modi has not been. Modi aspired to be with the pantheon of gods on the walls, while Rahul could sit with the family because there is a family member in the picture.
In the last 9 years, the BJP govt has marked some anniversaries and events with more zeal than Congress-led governments.
'It is not his doing, but Rahul Gandhi is forced by circumstances.' 'In taking political decisions, everything has to get his clearance.'
Rashriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat had the final word on the crisis that gripped the Bharatiya Janata Party since Lok Sabha polls, declaring not to allow any Delhi-based leader become the party president and asserting that Lal Krishna Advani would quit as Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha 'according to the schedule agreed by him.'
'How come the BJP won even in the Muslim belt? I am 100% sure that the BJP would not win in the Muslim belt.'
Even as a large number of RSS workers and supporters, including some office bearers, have pledged support to Velingkar, who was removed as the state chief recently, a sizable number of swayamsevaks are averse to part ways with the Sangh.
The BJP at 43 is a work in progress, with total ideological continuity and much substantive change in political method and style, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The two channels -- Media One and Asianet News TV -- were earlier issued a show cause notice and after they filed their replies, the ministry found them to be in violation of the Programme Code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.
The opinion piece added that the party combines the most striking principles of three major political entities in the world -- the Likud Party of Israel, the Communist Party of China and the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt.
Rashtriya Swayam sevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat the RSS does not interfere in party work. The issue of leadership in BJP has to be decided by the party. "It is not for us to interfere," said Bhagwat at a press conference in Delhi.
'Sri Ayodhyaji will emerge as the greatest centre of cultural togetherness, universal harmony, vasudeva kutumbakam, compassion, and love for every single living being on this Earth.'
Gujarat was labelled Hindutva's crucible and Modi was to become the chief 'chemist'. A revealing political saga excerpted from Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay's The Demolition, the Verdict and the Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project.
Seeking a consensus on Narendra Modi's projection as the prime ministerial candidate, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has held confabulations with top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including L K Advani, who is said to have reservations on the issue.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, who had created a stir with his remarks on Hindu terror, attacked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh yet again at the AICC plenary session at New Delhi on Sunday.
While it is almost certain that Gadkari won't get a second term as BJP president, the RSS wants to ease him out without diminishing its own clout within the saffron pariwar. Sheela Bhatt analyses the situation.
Referring to the Jinnah controversy, Khurana said he had requested former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to call a meeting of RSS chief K S Sudarshan and Advani for a "heart-to-heart talk" so as to defuse tension.
He served the right-wing organisation for around 16 years under the guidance of Gobinda Acharya and Krishnagopal Sharma, two prominent Sangh leaders.
Alleging "connivance" between the Sangh Parivar and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre, the Congress party on Wednesday said the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of reconversions will upset the social equilibrium in the country.
'They were as late as June 2023 and they did not follow it up with concrete measures immediately in terms of a secretariat or common minimum programme, working group or seat sharing etc.' 'They continued to have periodic meetings after a gap of weeks where they had tasty dinner and coffee, but beside that they did nothing else.'
They said according to the Hague Convention, the service upon a foreign entity had to be served through the prescribed rules.
Visiting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters for the first time since his resignation plunged the Bharatiya Janata Party into a crisis, L K Advani on Friday met Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and hels "fruitful" discussions on the forthcoming elections to state assemblies and next year's Lok Sabha poll.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and discussed "important" issues, but said there was no talk on politics in Maharashtra where the Bharatiya Janata Party is in the process of government formation.
Experts recommend awaiting the findings of the 2021 Census, which is yet to be conducted, before introducing population control policies.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal national executive meeting on Sunday witnessed a ruckus as RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav's elder son and Bihar cabinet minister Tej Pratap Yadav came out of the meeting fuming and called the party's national general secretary Shyam Rajak an agent of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
The new Ram Lalla idol was consecrated at the Ayodhya temple on Monday, an event led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and watched by lakhs of people on television at their homes and in temples across the country.
"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.
Distancing himself from decision-making process in the Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Saturday that he had counselled the party leadership to look for a young candidate who can restore its organisational set-up.
Modi wants the BJP to gets an additional 10% of the vote share from what it won in 2019. Plans are afoot to get new faces to replace MPs with poor chances of winning. Sources say more than 100 MPs are like to be axed, notes Modi biographer Ramesh Menon.
A shoe was hurled at Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Monday during his roadshow in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh.
'Is the agenda of the RSS according to the Constitution of India? They talk of Hindu Raj, Hindutva. Is this Constitutional?'
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances