RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's visit to a mosque and his meeting with the head of an organisation of imams were not a deviation from the outfit's line, its senior leader Indresh Kumar said on Friday.
Bommarabettu Laxmijanardhana Santhosh is the only south Indian and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's representative in the BJP's senior decision-making hierarchy.
RSS-linked weekly Organiser has accused US e-commerce giant Amazon of financing a "Christian conversion module" in India's northeastern states and being involved in suspected money laundering.
"There are people who get converted and do not disclose that they have converted. They take double benefits," RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said at a press conference."
The BJP's victory in the Delhi Assembly elections has sparked speculation over who will lead the next government. Several prominent leaders, including Pravesh Verma, Ashish Sood, Pawan Sharma, Vijender Gupta, and Satish Upadhyay, are in the running for the chief minister's post. The party's national leadership is expected to make the final decision, leaving the contenders in a state of anticipation.
Rahul Gandhi made the statement on January 15, 2025, during the inauguration of the Congress Party's new headquarters at Kotla Road in Delhi.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday, met with many Muslim intellectuals including Chief Imam Dr Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi.
Students at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) defied an advisory from the university administration and screened a banned BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The screening, organized by the Left-backed All India Students' Federation (AISF), was initially planned to be displayed on a projector but was moved to a laptop after security personnel allegedly damaged the projector. The university had warned of disciplinary measures for violating the advisory, which stated that the documentary could "disrupt communal harmony" on campus. The AISF and the JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) condemned the advisory, calling it an attack on students' fundamental rights and alleging that the administration was attempting to stifle dissent and curb freedom of expression.
The Congress on Tuesday accused Home Minister Amit Shah of harboring "hatred" towards B.R. Ambedkar, demanding an apology from him for his remarks in the Rajya Sabha. Congress leaders pointed out that Shah's comments, which criticized the frequent invocation of Ambedkar's name by the opposition, demonstrate a deep-seated animosity towards the architect of India's Constitution. The allegations sparked outrage among Congress members, who accused the BJP and RSS of having a history of disdain for Ambedkar. The incident has fueled political tensions, with the Congress vowing to hold Shah accountable for his remarks.
The IUML leadership viewed the actions of Khader, a two-time legislator, as serious despite his explanation that it was not a meeting of the RSS, but only a cultural event.
The Emergency greatly influenced the RSS' makeover from a fringe force in the Indian political imagination to one that could have its own man sworn in as prime minister in two decades' time. A riveting excerpt from Christophe Jaffrelot and Pratinav Anil's India's First Dictatorship: The Emergency, 1975-1977.
'The core group from Pune, which bought arms, trained people, carried out intelligence gathering and participated in all the stages of the battle, consisted of RSS volunteers.' 'The Pune group raised resources with the help of three stalwarts from the film industry.' 'The stalwarts were Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi and C Ramchandra.'
'The BJP has killed public anger. They have killed people's self-respect.'
Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Tuesday said Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh offices in the state will be provided with adequate security
The Madras high court on Friday directed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to hold its 'route marches' and public meetings in 51 places in Tamil Nadu on November 6, instead of the originally proposed October 2.
Owaisi criticized the court-ordered survey of a Mughal-era mosque in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, saying it weakens India and distracts from real issues like inflation and unemployment.
The RSS chief, who is engaged in a campaign to increase contact with Muslims, on Thursday visited Masjid and madrassa in Delhi and met Chief Imam of All India Imam Organisation Dr Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, who called the RSS chief 'the Father of the Nation'.
The senior police officer said the four, after interrogation, revealed their roles and that the police now knows all the participants, conspirators and collaborators involved in the killing of the RSS leader.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, accusing them of "speaking the language of urban naxals" and being "AAP-da" for the youth. He also took a swipe at former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, saying those who entertain themselves by getting photo sessions done in huts of the poor will find the talk about the poor in Parliament boring. Modi also hailed his government's decisions in the Budget and said that the Ayushman Bharat scheme, which his government started for the poor, has been stalled by some states, leaving poor people in hardship.
'The RSS ideology has been borrowed from fascism and is not borne out of Hinduism.' 'They want India to have one historical identity whereas India is a land full of divergence which goes in every direction.'
"It is necessary for all to oppose this together," RSS spokesperson Sunil Ambekar said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday returned to power in Delhi after more than 26 years to sweep away the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party with a two-thirds majority on the back of a hyper localised campaign and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'AAP-da'(disaster) blitzkrieg.
Frank Duckworth, the pioneering statistician who co-created the Duckworth Lewis method adopted in cricket to revise targets in limited overs games truncated due to rain, died last week.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said violence does not benefit anybody and emphasised the need to bring together all communities and preserve humanity, comments coming against the backdrop of the recent clashes between different groups in several parts of the country.
Members of the Popular Front of India and its political offshoot Social Democratic Party of India as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were among those involved in the two recent back-to-back murders in Palakkad district, the Kerala police said on Monday.
He emphasised the need to get over with election rhetoric and focus on problems facing the nation.
A release issued by the RSS on Thursday had said the agenda of the four-day meeting included a discussion of Sangh volunteers' response to the coronavirus pandemic and preparations to face a possible third wave, among other things.
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.
'We are seeing an era where only what Modi wishes is going to happen.' 'A clear message has now been sent to others that if this fate could befall on Nitin Gadkari, then just think what could happen to lesser mortals.'
'The Muslims in Karnataka are safe and secure. The state government belongs to everybody.'
The state government, citing law and order issues due to protests by certain groups in the event of the RSS taking out a route march on Gandhi Jayanthi (Oct 2), refused permission.
Three Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers have been arrested for allegedly carrying out the murder of a Popular Front of India leader in Palakkad district of Kerala on April 15, the police said on Tuesday, and added that the trio were friends of an RSS leader who was killed in Palakkad in November last year.
United States President Donald Trump for the fourth time in recent days claimed that the Biden administration allocated $21 million funding to India for 'voter turnout', evoking a sharp response from the Congress which urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to 'talk to his friend' and strongly refute the allegation.
Debutant legislator Rekha Gupta was sworn in as Delhi chief minister along with six ministers on Thursday in a grand show of strength full of colour and spectacle to mark the Bharatiya Janata Party's return to power in the city after more than 26 years.
Opposition parties in India have criticized the imposition of President's rule in strife-torn Manipur, accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of failing to address the ethnic violence and using the measure to cover up internal conflicts within the party. They demanded a clear roadmap for restoring peace and questioned the government's lack of transparency and inaction on the issue. The violence, which erupted in May 2023, has left over 250 people dead.
'The people of Gujarat are more religious than people of other states, this gives the BJP an advantage.'
Hailing the Bharatiya Janata Party's Delhi assembly polls victory as 'historic', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a stinging attack on the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress, saying the country needs a serious political transformation and not politics of 'dhoort-ta (deceit) and moorkhta (foolishness)'.
ADGP (Law and Order) Vijay Sakhare told PTI that the police have also taken into custody a person suspected to be involved in the killing of RSS leader Sanjith in the district in November last year.
'...Shyam had not given me the roles he did.'
Speaking at an event in Mumbai organised by Pune-based Global Strategic Policy Foundation, he said 'sane' Muslim leaders should stand firmly against fundamentalists and added the minority community does not have to fear anything in India as Hindus don't hold enmity towards anyone.
