Making Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) stand clear on ‘religious conversion’ in context to ‘Ghar Wapsi’ programmes, Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh of RSS Manmohan Vaidya on Saturday said that the Sangh does not believe in conversion (Dharmantaran) and as far as ‘home coming’ or ‘Ghar Wapsi’ is concerned, it is different from religious conversion.
Vaidya asserted that ‘home coming’ is for those who left their original faith and again wish to connect to their roots. It has nothing to do with conversion but it provides opportunity to fulfill the natural urge of connecting to one’s root, giving them a larger cultural identity, said that RSS pracharak since the year 1983. “It is natural, legal and being done since a long time. Even the Constitution of India has given freedom to select one’s faith,” he further said.
Talking on the sidelines of the three-day RSS Karyakarta Shibir (Gujarat region) which started from Friday, Vaidya said that the RSS is also working for voters’ awareness through door-to-door campaign. “Such awareness promotes healthy democracy. We also create awareness on issues pertaining to national interest. Naturally, only those parties gain which agree with such campaigns,” he added.
Gujarat region’s Karyakarta Shibir is being organised after a long gap of 15 years at Dastan Farm on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. last time it was conducted at the same venue in the year 2000, which was attended by 25,000 Karyakarta. In 1985, the attendance was 5,000. “This time we accepted registration of those karyakartas, who have responsibility of ‘shakhas’. Because of it, more than 14,500 such karyakartas are attending the Shibir,” he said. On increasing the number of shakhas, the prachar pramukh said that compared to previous year, there is a surge of nearly 45,000 shakhas in the year 2014 and in the case of Gujarat it is 320.
Answering a query on whether increase in shakhas has any connection with the BJP’s political rise, he said that there was no role of the BJP as the maximum number of shakhas increased in Kerala where the BJP is not in power. More number of people are showing interest in joining the RSS every year, he said adding, “In 2012, 1,000 requests came through RSS website per month. It went up to 2,500 in 2013 and in the recently concluded year 2014, we received on an average 9,000 requests per month. In the case of Gujarat it went up from 45 request in 2012 to 490 in 2014. Online requests and individual request through shakhas are separate”
Divulging detail on the RSS network in Gujarat, he said that the Sangh is operating in Gujarat prant (region) through 12 regions, 251 tehsils and 257 nagars. Under a tehsil there are 2,000 mandals and each mandal has a bunch of 8-9 villages, he added.