With the Bharatiya Janata Party's surge in popularity, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has also witnessed a spurt in membership, especially among young adults. Ram Madhav, spokesperson and member of the RSS central executive committee, speaks to Manavi Kapur about how the organisation plans to sustain the momentum
Is it true that RSS membership has increased in the last few months? To what do you attribute this trend?
In the last five years, we have made special efforts to recruit more students from professional institutions, universities and colleges. To that end, we have created new activities, new programmes and have changed the methodology of interaction. For example, activities are held on university campuses and in hostels. We have also started using new methods, like group discussions and PowerPoint presentations. We are probably the only organisation in the country that encourages games like rugby. We have also promoted web-based activities in the form of creating groups and exchanging information. The RSS website has been made more interactive to attract a newer, younger demographic.
You are right that in the last few months there has been a change in the general mood in the country due to Narendra Modi's campaign. This has also helped to some extent in encouraging the youth to understand the ideology of RSS, particularly because there has been a lot of discussion in the media about how BJP and RSS work together.
Would you attribute this surge in recruitments to BJP's election campaign?
I would certainly agree that it has slightly helped our programmes and given them momentum, but to attribute this level of engagement entirely to the election campaign is not correct.
What are the new activities that you spoke of?
We have made the programmes more attractive to the youth. The message of RSS remains the same - how to love the country, come together, serve its people and lead clean personal and public lives. We have developed new ways of spreading the message. Our presence overseas has also increased, especially through the Internet.
We have exclusive shakhas for IT professionals in cities like Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai where this industry is concentrated. In such cities, we have organised 'IT Milans', where events are held in an informal way. Here, you probably won't see IT professionals coming in RSS shorts. In some cases, women employees also join in since the nature of these activities, which are held mostly at coffee shops, is largely intellectual. Some of them even volunteer for service projects in villages.
What does this increase in enrolment mean for RSS as an organisation?
We are an organisation that has adapted to changing situations constantly, and that is our biggest strength. We have survived for 85 years, but we are also growing. For the youth, if we create activities that attract them, it will help us take our organisation forward, and I would say we have been fairly successful. The majority of the office-bearers at the provincial levels and state pracharaks are in the age group of 35-40. Our national team has a large number of young people. The general view was that RSS was meant for people above the age of 60, but that is changing. The recruitment of youngsters has helped us project a young face and has helped us immensely.
What are RSS's views on Section 377, Article 370 and the Uniform Civil Code, issues that the BJP manifesto mentions? What do your younger members think about these issues?
The onus of how to take these issues forward lies with the government. The BJP manifesto talks about many things, apart from these. Currently, the Ram Mandir issue is before the Supreme Court. Unless the court comes to a view, I don't think any government can do anything at this time. As for Section 377, let us see what stand the government takes on this issue. But I can say this - that while glorification of certain forms of social behaviour is not something we endorse, the penalising and criminalisation aspects need to be looked into. Whether to call homosexuality a crime and treat it as one in this day and age is questionable.
Most of our members are thinking young adults who discuss these issues. Our stand on Article 370 and the Uniform Civil Code is similar to BJP's. But how these changes will be implemented is up to the political parties and the government. Since we interact with the youth, I can tell you that a large number of our young members are in support of our views.
