PM reaffirms his RSS credentials

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PM reaffirms his RSS credentials

 

www.business-standard.com/

Our Political Bureau in New Delhi

Published : August 7, 2003

 

 

 

 

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today sought to reaffirm his

credentials as a swayamsevak by participating in the gurudakshina

ritual at the residence of Minister of State for railways Bandaru

Dattatreya.

 

The ritual, that is meant to establish the primacy of the Rashtriya

Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) over its front organisations including the

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is held after the birthday of sage Vyas

who wrote the Mahabharat, usually in August.

 

In Delhi, the ceremony will go on in small groups of RSS workers

specially invited for the event from August 3 to 24.

 

Gurudakshina means an offering to the teacher and at the end of the

pooja, the saffron flag is worshipped. The idea is to consolidate

Hindu society.

 

The ceremony is chaired by a leading light of the area in which it is

held—an eminent social worker, surgeon and armyman.

 

Vajpayee has performed the gurudakshina ceremony every year. This

time Vajpayee, accompanied by his Cabinet colleagues associated with

the RSS, including Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani and Human Resource

Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, performed the dhwaja pranam

(saluting the saffron flag) and offered gurudakshina.

 

Vajpayee also presented an unspecified amount in a sealed envelope as

donation.

 

RSS sources said this amount (which is kept secret) was collected and

generally used to finance the Sangh's education and health projects

in tribal areas.

 

As is customary, RSS general secretary Mohanrao Bhagwat gave a

lecture (bauddhik) on the topic of guru-shishya parampara.

 

The bauddhik is usually about the traditions of the relationship

between the teacher and the student, and is a guide to how an RSS

worker should conduct himself in the difficult times that the country

is passing through.

 

Several—but not all as the list of invitees to this kind of function

is limited —ministers and MPs were also present at the ceremony.