"It is seven years since the worst carnage against the Christian community took place in Kandhamal in Odisha. I, along with some others, was there to attend the annual observance, this time in Raikia, of the anniversary organized by the Kandhamal Committee for Peace and Justice in the memory of those killed, injured in 2008 and for those whose lives have been forever marked by the trauma and terror of the communal conflagration that lasted for several months.
"The soft spoken Vice President of India Hamid Ansari has become the target of right wing groups who leave no occasion unturned to flout all constitutional propriety and norms and hurl nasty accusations at him.
'Senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue M.G. Vaidya has argued that caste-based reservation given to the Scheduled Castes (SCs), the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in government jobs and educational institutions should be done away with as caste is “no more relevant.” Speaking to The Hindu in the context of the Patel community’s agitation for reservation in Gujarat, Mr. Vaidya said, “There is no need for caste-based reservation now, because no caste has remained backward.
"With changing social equations putting enormous pressure on Left politics in Kerala, the Sangh Parivar is on a quiet roll. Can the Left wing marshal a response?... Anup Yasodharan grew up on Marxist slogans in Pattakkala, a hilly village by the Manimala river in Central Travancore. His grandfather and father were active workers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)]. Today, the articulate and polite 22-year-old is the leader of a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) shakha in his village. Anup’s baptism into Hindutva is instructive.
"In the decade that it took the BJP to come back to power at the Centre, the Sangh Parivar appears to have been busy setting up an intellectual factory in Delhi. At least eight think-tanks have been established in the national capital from 2004 and 2014, all supported by prominent members of the BJP and its fountainhead, the RSS. While some of them make no effort to hide their ideological affiliation and some do, all of these organisations dabble in public policy. Here's a look at these think-tanks...
'The RSS membership is growing at 10,000 to 15,000 recruits every month and says it has reached every district except parts of Kashmir and Assam. “With the change in political atmosphere, many people or organisations who earlier supported us but hesitated to join us are now openly working with us. This is a big change,” RSS saha sarakaryavah V Bhagaiah said in an interview to RSS organ Organiser.
"Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), an outfit backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), will will deliberate on issues such as terrorism and communal riots in its “biggest ever” Ulema conference on Saturday here, although the All Indian Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) have decided not to participate in it... Stating that MRM is inspired from working of the Sangh parivar that runs educational institutions and medical help centres for poor and tribals, Afzal said, “RSS never did any thing which was anti-Muslim”.
"In what might be called a classic case of political naivety, the Student Islamic Organisation of India (SIO), the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami of India, recently organised an international seminar on ‘communal harmony’ and ‘nation-building’ in collaboration with the Department of Political Science, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) where Indresh Kumar1 of the RSS was invited as the chief guest. Since Indresh Kumar could not turn up, Laxmikant Vajpayee, the State President of the BJP, substituted for him.2
"The appointment of actor Gajendra Chauhan — described by some sections of the media as a “C-lister” — to the chairmanship of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) has once again raised questions about the scarcity of credible, right-wing intellectuals. It is no secret that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been struggling to find intellectuals to head various academic and cultural institutions.
'...As the monsoons finally reached the capital last week, leading to cooler climes but also traffic snarls, a cloud also burst on the heads of the BJP and the Narendra Modi government. It has been raining scams for over a month now, but the darkest clouds have surely built around India’s most lethal one, Vyapam. This involves more than financial swindles, something the nation may be a little immune to. With Vyapam, there is a human connect in the pile of corpses, all such ordinary people, and some so young.
