Top Opposition leaders won’t be attending RSS lecture series in Delhi

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s much-touted three-day lecture series begins at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi from Monday, September 17. The programme, titled "Future of Bharat: An RSS Perspective", is slated to be attended by dignitaries including religious leaders, film stars, sportspersons, industrialists and envoys from different countries, but top Opposition leaders are unlikely to attend the event.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will not be gracing the occasion. While former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has made known his decision, the CPI(M) said that Yechury was travelling and in any case they had no invite from the RSS.

The Congress was more derisive of the RSS. "RSS and BJP have been spreading this fake news for a while regarding sending invites as if it was some kind of a medal of honour," party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said. "No such invite has been received by the Congress party and it is not a medal of honour. Their inherently hate-filled agenda is known to one and all," said Surjewala.

The RSS, founded in 1925 and the ideological fountainhead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, explained why the close-knit group was inviting others to an event unprecedented in nature. "RSS is being criticised by one and all, especially by the Opposition," an RSS spokesman told IANS. "This event is to present our view, how we see the issues which the opposition has been using to target us and the government."

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will be delivering talks presenting the Sangh's view on various contemporary issues of national importance on all three days. The event follows Bhagwat's address at a recent second World Hindu Congress in Chicago where the RSS chief urged Hindus to unite.

The RSS calls itself a non-political group but critics say it controls the BJP and influences its policies.

Inputs by NH Web Desk