Rumours rife on Rajju bhaiyya’s retirement

NAGPUR, Aug 15: A major reshuffle in the top echelon of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is seen to be on the cards as the headquart...

NAGPUR, Aug 15: A major reshuffle in the top echelon of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is seen to be on the cards as the headquarters here is thick in speculations that the present Sarsanghchalak Rajendra Singh aka Rajju Bhaiyya is going to step down and nominate Parivar think-tank ideologue K S Sudershan as his his successor.

Sources say the change of guard is likely to be announced during the crucial three-day meeting of the organisation at Gadchiroli on September 9.

The speculations of a shake-up are apparently fired by reports of chronic ill-health of the RSS chief’s ill-health and the general secretary of the organisation H V Sheshadri. Of late both Singh and Sheshadri reportedly had been severely constricted from extensive tours of the country as imperative to their working in the top brass of the RSS behemoth.

Both Rajendra and Seshadri were rumoured to have been admitted to a private nursing home in Mumbai last month.

According to reliable sources from the Sangh headquarters, K CSudershan, the present joint general secretary, is tipped for top position in the organisation. Noted as an out and out organisation man of class and calibre, Sudershan has served Sangh in various capacities, including boudhik pramukh and joint general secretary.

Political observers feel that the proposed change would help the organisation to bolster the presence of the parivaar in the south, as Sudershan hails from Andhra Pradesh.

It was in March 1994 when late Balasaheb Deoras nominated the same Rajju Bhaiyya at the Pratinidhi Sabha meeting that the RSS saw a break in its tradition of naming a successor to the incumbent Sarsanghchalak through secret envelopes, opened only in event of Sangh chief’s death. The procedure was followed in the cases of Guruji, M S Golwalkar and later Balasaheb Deoras.

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Then there is the caste factor. Within the Parivar, though the 76-year-old Rajju Bhaiyya was rated as the most eligible’ successor to Deoras, there was consternation at the fact that a non-Maharashtrian anda non-Bramhin could be anointed RSS chief.

All three predecessors of Singh — Hedgewar, Golwalkar and Deoras — were Maharashtrian Bramhins. The clout of the clan and caste in the RSS set-up can be gauged from the fact that when the Sangh was formed in 1925 at Nagpur by Dr Hedgewar, he had four allies, B S Munje, L V Paranjape, B B Thalkar and Babarao Savarkar (Veer Savarkar’s brother) — all of them Maharashtrian Bramhins.

However, it was at the 1994 and ’97 Pratinidhi Sabha meetings, the Maharashtrian lobby was sidelined.

If Sheshadri steps down, Madan Das or Sureshrao Ketkar (the latter also a Maharashtrian Bramhin) may succeed him. Presently, both are joint general secretaries of the organisation.