Two days after comments by poet and former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas on the literacy of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at an event in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh stirred a controversy, organisers have decided to call off his event scheduled to be held at the Navlakhi ground in Vadodara on March 3 and 4. In a statement on Friday, MSU Syndicate member Jigar Inamdar, convener of Samanvay Pratishthan said that he was calling off the event — a two-day discourse on the life of Lord Krishna titled ‘Apne Apne Shyam — to “protect the dignity” of his “mother-institution”, RSS. Vishwas is said to have accepted the decision of the organisers to call off the event. “It would have been the first of his discourse on Lord Krishna, on the lines of Apne Apne Ram that he held in Ujjain, where the controversy broke out. I called him up and told him that in view of the comments he has passed (on the RSS), it would be impossible to continue with the event in Vadodara. He told me that he accepted the deision,” Inamdar said adding that he has not yet considered holding the event at a future date. In a statement issued Friday evening, Inamdar, who has completed the third year Sangh Shiksha Varg in his youth, said, “In order to protect the country and the culture of this country, several Swayamsevaks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have sacrificed their lives. One such Swayamsevak is also leading the country and taking it on to the path of progress. Since RSS is my mother organisation, I have to take decisions without considering my personal losses. To protect the dignity of my mother institution (RSS), today, I am making a hard decision.” He added, “With deep anguish in my heart, I have decided to call off the first event of Dr Kumar Vishwas titled Apne Apne Shyam to be held in Vadodara, for which 52,648 persons had already registered.” Vishwas, whose comment on the “literacy” of the RSS and the Left landed him in a controversy earlier this week had also released a video apologising to “those who could not assimilate the meaning” of his sentence.
