 "Manohar Parrikar asked Nitin Gadkari to sack me: Subhash Velingkar")
Sacked RSS leader Subhash Velingkar alleged on Friday that Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's first task as the election in-charge of Goa was to sack him as Sangh Chalak for the Goa unit.
Velingkar also said that his newly-floated parallel unit of the Goa RSS would continue to do its work in the state, irrespective of the Sangh top brass' threat to appoint a new Sangh Chalak and office bearers for the coastal state.
"Nitin Gadkari has been appointed as secretary for the upcoming state assembly elections in Goa in order to ensure that BJP wins. That is his task and he will work according to that responsibility. On Parrikar's pressure, he has sacked me. This was his first task," Velingkar told reporters in Panaji.
When asked to react to a statement made by Manmohan Vaidya, RSS's head of publicity, that the Sangh refuses to recognise Velingkar's new RSS faction and that a new Sangh Chalak and office bearers would be appointed for Goa soon, Velingkar said: "Let them do it. We are going ahead with our own goals and we do not want anyone's interference. We are standing with the people. Society is bigger than one person and organisation."
Velingkar however said that RSS Sarsangh Chalak Mohan Bhagwat had nothing to do with his sacking.
The RSS leader has also welcomed the support offered to his pro-regional language agitation by the local unit of the Shiv Sena.
Velingkar has said that he has been targeted by the RSS top brass and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for criticising the state BJP-led coalition's pro-English education policies, which the RSS leader claims was undermining regional languages Konkani and Marathi.
More From This Section
The RSS has however claimed that Velingkar had political ambitions and was therefore removed from the state Sangh Chalak post.
On Wednesday, after Velingkar was sacked, all Goa office bearers and around 400 Sangh members resigned from the organisation and on Thursday floated a parallel RSS Goa unit appointing Velingkar as it's Sangh Chalak.
Gadkari was appointed Goa election in charge last week.