RSS Says 'No' To Change

The buzz in the media was that the RSS, at the triennial meeting of its highest decision making body, the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, in Nagpur last week, would appoint Dattatreya Hosabale as its new general secretary. Such a move was supposed to have been welcomed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with whom Hosabale is said to be closely aligned.

- Uday Mahurkar

In the event, the RSS retained its present general secretary, the septuagenarian Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’Joshi, for a fourth term.

In its last gathering in 2015, the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha had made the decision to discard the khaki shorts, so synonymous with the RSS, in favour of trousers. While substituting Hosabale for Joshi may have been a less dramatic change, the possibility had apparently caused a flutter of excitement and tension within the organisation.