Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday said the organisation has not joined Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement but will participate if asked to do so.
With Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's pitch for a 'secular' face as the National Democratic Alliance's prime ministerial candidate evoking strong reaction from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday posed five questions to the Sangh asking it to define Hindutva.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday expressed confidence in the unity of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in combating injustice nationwide, a day after Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's decision to go solo in the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has promised to revamp the party in Gujarat, vowing to defeat the BJP in the state. He acknowledged that Congress cadres are "demoralised" due to the party's long absence from power, but expressed confidence in their ability to defeat the BJP. Gandhi outlined a plan to strengthen district units, empower local leaders, and identify and remove inactive or "BJP-friendly" party members. He also emphasized the need to promote active grassroots workers and ensure a connection between the party organization and election candidates. He vowed to hold senior leaders accountable for their performance and promised to create a corpus fund for district units.
Dr Farhat Khan, the author of a controversial book, was arrested from Pune in Maharashtra on Thursday, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said.
The two-time MLA from Sankhalim in North Goa, Sawant, who was speaker of the state assembly, is a dedicated Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker.
This comes a day after he targeted the saffron party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, asking why they were not chanting 'Jai Siyaram' and 'Hey Ram'.
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.
Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh on Saturday courted another controversy by saying he did not rule out the involvement of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Mumbai serial blasts, evoking sharp criticism and condemnation from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Backing Supreme Court Judge Justice A R Dave over his call to teach the Gita in schools, a leading Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue on Wednesday said the work is not a mere religious scripture but a spiritual and philosophic classic and called for it to be declared the "national book."
Conversion to Christianity was the main objective behind Mother Teresa's service to the poor, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Monday.
Social media giant Twitter on Saturday removed the blue verification tick from the accounts of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and other senior functionaries only to restore it after a lot of hue and cry by Sangh sympathisers on social media.
The Rajya Sabha chairman asked him to authenticate his assertions and refused to accept newspaper clippings that the Congress leader showed to buttress his points.
Striking a strident note, the Congress has renewed its attack on the Sangh Parivar asking the government to take strong and tough action against them, in the wake of a top Sangh functionary Swami Aseemanand admitting that he and his colleagues were involved in the Samjhauta Express blasts.
Is the gentleman in the suit standing behind Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat who we think it is?
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".
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on March 3 an appeal of the Tamil Nadu government against the Madras high court order permitting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to take out a march in the state.
Amid ongoing row over replacing German with Sanskrit as third language in Kendriya Vidyalayas, German Ambassador Michael Steiner on Wednesday reached out to Sanskrit teachers, including Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue Dina Nath Batra and decided to resolve the issue through more cultural exchanges.
Occasional lovers' tiffs have marked the history of RSS-BJP relations. To think that Nagpur will bring about any change in leadership is a misreading of both its intent and its power, points out Shekhar Gupta.
In yet another instance of growing feud within Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sangh Parivar, an article in a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mouthpiece has criticised Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his style of functioning and also indicated that the party has several other prime ministerial candidates.
'No one is propagating RSS ideology as a government officer.'
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Friday said it was opposed to the concept of live-in relationship, which was "against the humanity and the Indian culture".
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.
Bhagwat said, "The simple truth is this, Hindusthan should remain Hindusthan. There is no harm to the Muslims living today in Bharat... Islam has nothing to fear. But at the same time, Muslims must abandon their boisterous rhetoric of supremacy."
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat admitted there were some members in the Sangh who had radical views but they were told to leave the organisation since this "extremism" will not work in the outfit.
Kejriwal wanted to know if the RSS agreed with the BJP's politics of using central agencies to break up parties and topple opposition governments, and inducting "corrupt" leaders into its fold.
Senior leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from Madhya Pradesh met officials in Indore following the arrest of a few people, allegedly linked with the Sangh, in Malwa region. Leading the delegation, BJP Member of Parliament Sumitra Mahajan, along with local Members of Legislative Assembly and RSS leaders, went to the Officers' Mess of Police on Sunday night to meet the NIA officials, party sources said on Monday.
A photograph of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat sitting with Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav has set tongues wagging in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, with the Congress taunting that the S in SP means the Sangh.
Immediately following its ban being lifted on July 11, 1949, the RSS began debating entering politics in the pages of its house organ, The Organiser. Thus was born the Jana Sangh/BJP, points out Aakar Patel.Thus Was Born Jana Sangh/BJP, asserts Aakar Patel.
Even though the RSS buckled under pressure and let go Nitin Gadkari, it did not yield ground to L K Advani completely. The Sangh preferred to go with Rajnath Singh as the BJP president, rejecting Advani's first choice, Sushma Swaraj. More feuds are expected in the saffron joint family in the days to come. Poornima Joshi examines
The Bharat Mata controversy in Kerala shows how political and symbolic fights between the state and the Centre have taken attention away from education, throwing the state's oldest university into confusion and disorder, observes Shyam G Menon.
Pakistan has warned the international community that any military moves by India shall be 'responded to assuredly and decisively... onus of any escalatory spiral and its consequences shall squarely lie with India.' Implicit in the statement is a veiled threat that even a nuclear threshold may be reached if push comes to shove, warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Sunday slammed Gandhian Anna Hazare for failing to acknowledge that its workers had played an "active role" in his nationwide crusade against corruption last year, though the Sangh itself was not part of the civil society agitation.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's reported ambition to become the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate in 2014 may remain unfulfilled.
'We are convinced a section of the bureaucracy believes we should follow the Western model of economic development including the dictates of the WTO,' says RSS Spokesman Ram Madhav.
Amid allegations of dubious funding for companies run by BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Friday distanced itself from the controversy saying it has nothing to do with the controversy surrounding him.
Patna's senior superintendent of police Manavjeet Singh Dhillon, who is in the eye of a storm for allegedly comparing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh with Islamic extremist outfit Popular Front of India, on Friday asserted that the controversy stemmed from a "selective interpretation" of his statement.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has alleged the United States could be behind the protests against the Kudankulam nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu and claimed a lot of money has been pumped into NGOs leading the campaign.
Despite the presence of top Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders in Gujarat over the last two days to discuss the future strategy of the Sangh Parivar, no meeting took place between them and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, fuelling speculation that all is not well.
The BJP lashed out at the Congress for its "promotion of violence" and dubbed its yatra as "Bharat Todo Yatra".