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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 4:59:11 pm

Bhagwat to outline roadmap for next century

Mumbai: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghachalak Dr Mohan Bhagwat will address thousands of volunteers and key political observers at Reshimbagh grounds in Nagpur tomorrow at 7.40 am on the occasion of Vijayadashami, formally concluding the organisation’s centenary-year celebrations. He is expected to deliver an ideological and operational blueprint intended to recalibrate Hindu society, counter ongoing opposition mobilisation across India, and outline internal organisational changes...

Bhagwat to outline roadmap for next century

Mumbai: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghachalak Dr Mohan Bhagwat will address thousands of volunteers and key political observers at Reshimbagh grounds in Nagpur tomorrow at 7.40 am on the occasion of Vijayadashami, formally concluding the organisation’s centenary-year celebrations. He is expected to deliver an ideological and operational blueprint intended to recalibrate Hindu society, counter ongoing opposition mobilisation across India, and outline internal organisational changes through a wide-ranging policy address. The annual Vijayadashami address, historically the most definitive forum for the RSS chief to articulate the organisation’s stance on domestic policy, cultural objectives and global affairs, carries heightened significance this year. Marking the completion of 100 years since Dr K.B. Hedgewar founded the organisation on Vijayadashami in 1925, Bhagwat’s address is designed to chart the strategic framework for the RSS as it enters its second century. Over the past 12 months, Bhagwat has personally anchored a series of outreach programmes across four Indian metropolitan hubs and two global nerve centres in the United States and Europe, signalling an appetite to project ideological clarity and broaden the organisation’s institutional footprint beyond traditional shakhas. The address comes against the backdrop of sustained street agitations orchestrated by the Congress party and newly formed groups such as the CJP in the national capital and several states. These demonstrations, centred on unemployment, social justice rhetoric and institutional accountability, have explicitly targeted India’s youth demographic — a constituency that has historically formed the primary recruitment pipeline and ideological backbone of the Sangh. Political observers believe Bhagwat will offer an unyielding response to these attempts to disrupt governance and erode the social coalition, reflecting an unmistakable determination within the Sangh Parivar leadership to resist political attrition and mount an active counter-narrative. The diplomatic and constitutional significance of the event is underscored by the deliberate selection of guests. Former Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Israel’s Consul General in Mumbai, Yaniv Revach, are attending as special invitees. Revach’s presence hints at possible remarks addressing global geopolitical realignment, the rise of civilisational conflicts, cross-border terrorism and national security challenges. Dhankhar’s attendance provides a platform to reaffirm constitutional patriotism and legislative stability at a juncture marked by sharp parliamentary confrontation. Equally consequential is the invitation extended to Sanjay Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of Dainik Jagran. For an organisation that has historically maintained a measured distance from mainstream media machinery, engaging with the leadership of India’s largest Hindi daily indicates an institutional shift towards proactive public communication. The gesture suggests that the Sangh recognises that narrative warfare in its next century requires strategic engagement with popular media platforms rather than a traditional reliance on insular organisational word of mouth. Beyond external ideological positions, the Nagpur gathering is expected to provide indicators of the structural transitions under way within the RSS. The organisation has been quietly restructuring its administrative echelons, revamping functional wings and adjusting internal deployment models in recent months. With additional leadership realignments slated across key tiers in the near future, Bhagwat’s speech is expected to define the organisational ethos for these generational handovers, emphasising flexibility in outreach while preserving core organisational discipline. As dawn breaks over Reshimbagh, the address will serve both as a balance sheet of a century-old journey and as a declaration of intent for an increasingly combative political era.

Wise Intervention

Correspondent
Aug 7
2 min read

If the Centre’s response to the NEET protests has been an admixture of vacillation, force and defensiveness, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s unequivocal endorsement of Gen Z may prove to be the most politically astute intervention since the agitation began.


By recognising the legitimacy of young Indians’ grievances instead of questioning their patriotism, Bhagwat may have prevented a crisis over examination leaks from becoming a lasting rupture with the ruling BJP’s future electorate.


While protesters are readily caricatured as troublemakers or political pawns, Bhagwat has consciously rejected that temptation. By insisting that young demonstrators are neither anti-national nor outsiders but India’s own next generation, he has reframed the debate from one of confrontation to one of responsibility.


While the protests spearheaded by Abhijit Dipke and his Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) took a notably ugly turn, leading many citizens to cast aspersions on the motivations on the protestors and their credibility, the controversy over examination leaks is nevertheless a serious and burning issue reflecting deeper anxieties among millions of young Indians about fairness, merit and opportunity.


Bhagwat’s admission that “something that shouldn’t happen” had indeed happened, and that such failures indicated “a deficiency” requiring correction, was an important recognition that government institutions must be capable of introspection.


Equally striking was his understanding of generational change. His observation that his own generation accepted authority while Gen Z demands logical answers was a graceful acceptance that democratic engagement has evolved. Young Indians today question institutions because they have higher expectations of them. Mature democracies do not fear such questioning, and that is what Bhagwat’s remarks implied.


His approach may carry considerable political significance for the ruling BJP. India is one of the world’s youngest democracies, with more than half its population below the age of 35. By 2029, Gen Z will constitute one of the country’s most influential electoral constituencies. Alienating them through dismissive rhetoric or excessive force would have been politically costly. Bhagwat’s unequivocal expression of trust - going so far as to say that if asked to trust blindly, he would trust Gen Z - offers a markedly different message. It tells young Indians that criticism of administrative failures need not place them outside the national mainstream.


In doing so, Bhagwat may also have blunted attempts by politically motivated groups to convert legitimate student grievances into a broader campaign of perpetual confrontation. Every democracy contains forces that seek to transform dissatisfaction into lasting alienation from constitutional politics. The surest antidote is not denunciation but through engagement. By recognising the legitimacy of protest while emphasising dialogue and democratic methods, Bhagwat has reduced the space for those seeking to escalate anger into indiscriminate agitation.

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