Months after leading a campaign against the ruling BJP-led coalition alliance in Goa, over what he claimed patronising of English in primary schools over regional languages, RSS top brass on Wednesday sacked its State president Subhash Velingkar.
Velingkar's removal follows his recent bitter criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which he claimed would not win the upcoming State Assembly elections and his leading a regional languages front the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM), which showed black flags to BJP national president Amit Shah during his visit to the State less than two weeks back.
"Velingkar has been removed from his post with immediate effect for floating a political outfit and working against the Goa Government," RSS publicity head Manmohan Vaidya said earlier on Tuesday.
later, a Press statement issued by Konkan Prant Sanghachalak Satish Modh said that the RSS is of the firm opinion that all efforts should be made to strengthen the system for primary education in Mother Tongue in all parts of the country and therefore would continue to back the BBSM.
"As part of the agitation, BBSM has announced about formation of a political party. RSS since its inception has never been involved in politics, and hence, RSS, would have no role in the political endeavour of BBSM. Within this background, it has been announced in a recent meeting of senior RSS office bearers, that convenor of BBSM Prof. Subhash Velingkar has been relieved from his responisbilities as the Goa Vibhag Sanghachalak," Modh said.
Reacting to the development Chief Minister laxmikant Parsekar told The Pioneer that he was a Swayamsevak himself and that as a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he believes it should not have happened.
"As a swayamsevak I would say it should not have happened," Parsekar said.
Former Speaker of the Goa legislative assembly and current Environment and Forests minister Rajendra Arlekar said Velingkar was an idol for him, but added that the RSS was free to take decisions, within its own set-up.
“See I have said again and again. RSS is an organisation which is competent to take their own decisions… To all of us he is a (Guru). There is no other guru in RSS (in Goa). He has been our idol,” Arlekar said.
Velingkar, who is one of the most revered RSS leaders in the state, is reckoned with shaping the political careers of several generations of BJP leaders including Parsekar, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, etc.
The now former RSS chief is the co-convenor of the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch, which has been extremely critical of the current government's decision to not cancel financial grants given to primary schools, where the medium of instruction is English.
Two groups, Forum for Rights of Children to Education2 (FORCE) backed by the influential Roman Catholic Church and the Bharatiya Bh;asha Suraksha Manch (BBSM) supported by the RSS have been at loggerheads in Goa over the last few years, over the choice of language of instruction in junior schools.
While the former group backs English, the Velingkar-led faction prefers indigenous languages as a instructive mediums in primary schools.
As convenor of the Manch, Velingkar, on Monday had threatened to float a political party, which he said was aimed at defeating the BJP in the upcoming state polls, which are likely to be held in early 2017.
"This government should not be too sure that they are going to be back in power after the elections because they have betrayed the trust of the people in the issue of regional languages... The BBSM will float a new political party to contest the forthcoming elections to defeat this government," Velingkar had said.