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Hindutva league leader RSS plans to
hijack Guru'ta Gaddi celebrations
Detailed plans afoot to unleash major assimilation exercise, will
organise sadhs-babas for occasion
WSN Bureau
 NEW DELHI: The saffron band is always on the look out for occasions
to stress assimilation and the very formation of the Rashtriya Sikh
Sangat by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) underlines this
rather covert mission of the Hindutva body. Consequently, the Sikh
community will have to be careful during the Guru'ta Gaddi Day
celebrations as the front body of the RSS, the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat,
is all set to try to hikack the event.
Any pretense that the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat is wedded to the ethos
of the tenth Sikh Master, Guru Gobind Singh Ji, is nothing but a
ruse. Not long ago, the same body had gone so far as to announce
that it will celebrate all gurpurabs in Hindu temples and had
formulated plans to install Guru Granth Sahib in temples for the
purpose. This was during the last stint of Parkash Singh Badal and
the plans had to be scrapped because they leaked out in advance in
the media.
Now, the same
Rashtriya Sikh Sangat has announced that it has made large-scale
preparations for the tercentenary-year celebration of Sri Guru
Granth Saheb to be held in Nanded Saheb. As per the Organiser, the
celebrations would begin on October 27 with Takhta snan. It is not
known whether any Sikh body has exactly any plan for any kind of "Takhta
snan".
Top RSS brass is taking a deep interest in the celebrations, and
coupled with the RSS efforts in giving rise to intense and bitter
debate being waged within the Sikh community, its plans cannot be
viewed as very innocous or innocent.
 RSS Sarsanghachalak K.S. Sudarshan, Sarkaryavah Mohan Bhagwat and
Akhil Bharatiya Bauddhik Pramukh Madhubhai Kulkarni at the recent
Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha held in Vrindavan from March 14 to
16 had asked the delegates to ensure that the saffron activists are
seen in the forefront. For the Khalsa, whose raison de etre is
uniqueness, such participation by a body that believes in a
homogenous concept of Indian nation state raises grave doubts.
The RSS activists have been seen overly active during the Jagriti
Yatra receptions in
Delhi
including at Narela, Gurmandi, Paharganj, Kashmiri Gate, Mandi
House,
Dilshad
Garden, Bhajan Pura and Shakarpur. In fact, the Organiser, the
mouthpiece of the RSS, quoted National convener of the yatra Sardar
Parminder Singh Pasricha as praising the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat's
participation.
The RSS front body has appointed its national vice president
Gurukirat Singh Butaliya as national convener of the organising
committee and Devender Singh, also state president of Andhra Pradesh
unit, as incharge of the langar unit.
Avinash Jaiswal, national general secretary of the Sangat, Nanded
unit, is also leading this participation. As it is, the Sikh
community should also brave itself for key roles for Sikh faces in
the BJP, like Navjot Sidhu who represents
Amritsar
in Indian Parliament. The WSN has learnt that the RSS is organising
a three-day conclave at Govind Sadan in Delhi from October 24 to 26
where several self-styled sadhs and babas will participate.
The RSS interventions are not suddenly hammered out plans but a lot
of preparation has gone into these. There were organising training
camps of activists by the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat in 2005 while on
July 17 that year, a camp was organised in Pune for the workers of
19 Kendras. A similar camp was organised in Jaipur in September the
same year. A national training camp was organised at
Ujjain
in December 2005.
25
June, 2008
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