Mohan Bhagwat

" After the much-hyped International Day of Yoga on June 21 that was packaged as a manifestation of India’s growing “soft power”, there are reports that the government plans official celebration of Raksha Bandhan on August 29, with RSS endorsement. A Ministerial committee, which includes Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani and Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar, will supervise the government-sponsored Raksha Bandhan celebrations, sources said. The annual festival, in which brothers vow to protect their sisters, is one that has always found favour with the RSS.

"Vijayadashami is the most important day in the calendar of the RSS, not only because it was founded on the festival in 1925, but also because the head of the organisation, the Sarsanghchalak, gives a speech on the occasion laying out the Sangh's agenda for the year. A dense manifesto that is mined extensively for implicit meanings. This year, however, the traditional celebration of a mythological victory had more than a symbolic meaning for the RSS.

"There is a lesser known story about the alleged bugging incident at Nitin Gadkari’s residence that needs to be told. Some days before the news became public, the Union road transport and highways minister had a meeting with the top brass of the RSS in New Delhi. The former BJP president, known for his proximity to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, expressed apprehensions that top leaders in the party, including himself, were being snooped upon.

"Instilling a “nationalist pride” in the Northeast is now on top agenda for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat, who inaugurated a school, Madhav Vidyapeeth, run by the RSS education wing Vidyabharti in Kakadkui village of Bharuch district on Sunday, said the organisation has to now “spread the feeling of nationalism” in the seven sister states of the Northeast. Citing the success of Sangh’s five-year-old school in Nagaland in “binding” the people with the country, he said the education wing of the RSS has to now carry forward the work in Northeast..."