Once a trusted lieutenant of the former National Conference president Omar Abdullah and his political advisor during his tenure as chief minister, Rana holds considerable sway among Muslims, particularly the Gujjar community in Jammu.
In an exclusive interview with rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt, RSS's executive council member Ram Madhav emphasised on using the judgement for strengthening national integrity but avoided agreeing to building a mosque and a temple at the same site.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday defended Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's remark that ''rapes occur frequently in India not in Bharat'', saying the present controversy is totally uncalled for and unnecessary.
In Sikkim, the BJP had not won a single seat in the recent assembly polls.
"Ram Madhav should not worry about Mumbai issue and should not teach us patriotism and unity," Uddhav told media persons.
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.
Just like with millions of Indian Muslims, even the vice president of India has been forced to undergo the covert loyalty test: 'you are presumed to be pro-Pakistan until you demonstrably prove you are a nationalist', says Shehzad Poonawalla.
Senior leader and spokesman of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha Ram Madhav's statement that the wall between India and Pakistan would come down like the Wall of Berlin has created ripples, particularly in the RSS circles.
If Rashid cannot be the king, he could be the kingmaker after October 8 when the results to the J&K assembly are declared.
Attacking BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav over his 'test of patriotism' tweet, Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore that patriotism doesn't mean you should waste your time in queues.
Mihir Shah, the prime accused in the Mumbai BMW hit-and-run case and son of a Shiv Sena politician, has told the police he was driving the car at the time of the crash which killed a woman and injured her husband, officials said on Wednesday citing probe carried out so far.
The Manipur government headed by Chief Minister N Biren Singh was plunged into crisis recently after four NPP and three BJP MLAs withdrew their support from it.
The Congress on Monday disapproved of the remarks of party general secretary Shakeel Ahmed and party MP Rashid Masood that the 2002 Gujarat riots had led to the formation of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen.
Henry Okram, nephew of former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ibobi Singh, Panonam Broken, Oinam Lukhoi Singh, Ngamthang Haokip, Ginsuanhau Zou were inducted into the BJP by its vice president Baijayant Jay Panda.
Only outstanding issue between India and Pakistan with respect to Kashmir is the status of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Ram Madhav said.
Defending Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's controversial remark that rapes hardly take place in 'Bharat', but they occur frequently in 'India', RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav on Friday said that the outfit had 'great respect for women'.
Questioning Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik's recent decision to share the stage with Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, in Islamabad, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Ram Madhav on Tuesday said the Centre should take due note of this act and take very strong measures to send a message to him and persons of his ilk.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has reiterated that there were no differences within the Bharatiya Janata Party and that its leaders were capable of sorting out differences.
'Don't be too much after legacy that it should be solved in my lifetime.' 'It is not going to be solved, because you are not dealing with just any other country, you are dealing with a civilisation, a cultural nation.'
Reacting sharply to the demand made by various Muslim outfits in the country that author Salman Rushdie should not be allowed to enter India, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh spokesperson Ram Madhav has described it as outrageous as it seeks to curtail Rushdie's right to travel, as the celebrated author is not visiting India to take part in a political event. Onkar Singh reports.
Minister of State for Culture Mahesh Sharma and the Bharatiya Janata Party National General Secretary Ram Madhav on Saturday attended the 'Thank You India' event in Dharamshala, organised to mark 60 years of The Dalai Lama's exile.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is 'not an economic fundamentalist', senior Sangh leader Ram Madhav said on Thursday making it clear that the Narendra Modi government is free to take decisions for the good of the country including on foreign direct investment.
To me he always symbolised the sincere, confident, face of a Bharat whose rise is unstoppable. Ratan Tata was a Rishi who was unquestioningly trusted by people who never saw him and never met him, asserts Tarun Vijay, the former BJP MP.
The meeting comes close on the heels of home minister's return from Jammu and Kashmir after wrapping up his two day visit to troubled Kashmir.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Monday night said it will extend its support to Bharatiya Janata Party veteran Lal Kishenchand Advani, who was projected as party's prime ministerial candidate, while National Democratic Alliance allies like Janata Dal-United and Shiv Sena reserved their comment.
As the Bharatiya Janata Party grappled with dissensions, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Tuesday said it will not intervene in the saffron party's affairs and the party will have to 'analyse' the developments and take the right decision. "I want to say this clearly that it is not the job of the RSS," its spokesman Ram Madhav told reporters a day after senior BJP leader Arun Shourie demanded that the Sangh take over the reins of the BJP.
Let the poor and underprivileged among the minorities understand that when it comes to uplifting them, the so-called minority leaders show no sympathy or sense of responsibility, writes Ram Madhav explaining the import of the Supreme Court verdict on the Right To Education Act
How come the home minister jumped to the conclusion that there was a 'phenomenon' called saffron terrorism? Can he explain where is the phenomenon? Do a couple of sporadic cases that took place during a period of 14 months become a phenomenon? RSS leader Ram Madhav wants to know.
In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Ram Madhav, member of the national executive and spokesperson of the RSS, discusses the comments made by Shinde, the controversial speech of Andhra Pradesh MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi and also the Bharatiya Janata Party's next prime ministerial candidate.
Madhav Kumar Nepal was sworn-in on Monday as the Prime Minister of Nepal along with two cabinet ministers, capping the three-week long political crisis in the country that eased Maoists out of power after a confrontation with the army.
"The entire incident is sad and it is nothing more than a conspiracy hatched to malign Joshi," RSS spokesman Ram Madhav said adding that a thorough probe should be carried out in the matter.
Terming the reports in the media as attempts to deliberately bring a bad name to the nation and the organization in particular, RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav said, "Mohan Bhagwat ji never said what has been attributed to him. The RSS firmly believes that marriage is religious in nature. It is sacrosanct. We are not against women taking part in the uplift of the country."
'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.'
Asking followers to create a language barrier to prevent influx of 'outsiders', Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray slammed Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, industrialist Mukesh Ambani and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh spokesperson Ram Madhav for making 'irrelevant' statements.
Breivik's act of killing innocents is reprehensible in strongest possible words. But the attempts to link it to Hindutva movement are also equally reprehensible, says Ram Madhav.
Regretting that the terrorists were able to "easily enter" and commit "heinous crimes" in Hindu sacred places, a Sangh spokesman said, "The nation should rise like one man to condemn the incident".
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh held demonstrations in several parts of the country accusing the Congress of hatching a "political conspiracy" to malign its image and "falsely" implicating its senior leader Indresh Kumar in the Ajmer blast case.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha on Tuesday vehemently denied the charges against some of its top functionaries in the Ajmer dargah blast case, saying 'tirade by political leaders and investigators indicated that the accusations were politically motivated.'
A day after seven accused in the Malegaon blasts were released on bail, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha on Thursday demanded similar relief to other right wing accused who have been lodged in jail.
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