It was a high-profile coming out party. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, ideological parent of the Modi government, normally invisible in its secretive shakhas, held a public lecture series at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan. The venue is an imposing Nehruvian temple of modern Indian state power, usually the stamping ground of constitutional VIPs. Today, lo and behold, for the first time ever, the ‘Hindu nationalist’ RSS, banned three times since Independence, often on a collision course with the Delhi ‘sultanate’, showed that it is trying to journey from Hedgewar Bhavan to Vigyan Bhavan.
The focus of the RSS conclave was squarely on sarsanghchalak Mohanrao Bhagwat, who took on the role of a newly emerged bridge builder. Bhagwat unleashed ideological disruption from the top, Read More