PANJIM: In RSS circles in Goa, almost the unthinkable has happened. Reacting to severe discontentment in the Goa BJP circles at its Chief Subhash Velingkar, announcing the formation of a political party to take on the BJP in 2017, the RSS has removed him from his position. His removal was the culmination of a long acrimonious and bitter exchange between him and the ruling BJP over the issue of grants to English schools, where Velingkar, in his avatar of Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM) convener, asked the MGP to split from the BJP and contest the elections against their own parivar party.
His removal came days after Velingkar led a delegation that showed black flags to BJP National President Amit Shah during his Goa visit, earlier this month. The decision will not put an end to the troubles within the saffron parivar on the issue of Medium of Instruction. In fact they could just be beginning. Herald learnt late on Wednesday, that during an emergency meeting of the RSS at the Hegdewar school in Bambolim, the sanctum sanctorum of the parivar in Goa, there were 400 mass resignations of workers and office-bearers of the RSS, demanding Velingkar be reinstated. RSs leaders from the Konkan (which supervises Goa) who had arrived for the meeting were blocked by local RSS workers.
It is been learnt that Shah complained about the embarrassment he had to face due to Velingkar before the RSS top brass in a meeting last week in Bhopal which was attended by Bhaiyaji Joshi and Krishna Gopal.
RSS All India Prachar Pramukh Manmohan Vaidya confirmed this saying the RSS was not a political organisation. “One cannot remain in the RSS and carry out political activities. Since Velingkar has announced that he would launch a new political party, the RSS needs to relieve him of his responsibilities,” Vaidya said.
However, Vaidya denied that Velingkar had been sacked for making anti-BJP statements adding that even those RSS workers who formally wanted to join the BJP had to resign their RSS responsibilities. “RSS is not a political organisation but its members are free to carry out political activities if they want but only after they have formally separated from the RSS,” Vaidya said.
The decision on the new RSS leader for Goa would be taken soon, he said.
Even after repeated attempts Velingkar remained unavailable for the comments.
The Konkan region RSS chief Satish Modh also confirmed that at a recent meeting of senior RSS office-bearers in Goa, it has been announced that Velingkar has been “relieved from his responsibilities”.
