Amit Shah, Mohan Bhagwat attend key RSS meeting in Vrindavan

Lucknow: The all important meeting of the RSS and its affiliates began in Vrindavan in Mathura on Friday. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and BJP president Amit Shah are among the top leaders attending the meet that will finalise the roadmap for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The attacks on RSS workers in Kerala and West Bengal came up for discussion at a crucial Sangh Parivar  meeting during which steps taken by the Centre to curb stone-pelting in Kashmir were lauded, RSS sources said. Senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionaries made presentations  on the violence allegedly targeting Sangh workers in the two states,  the sources said, adding that the situation in Kerala was deemed  “particularly dangerous” and participants dubbed it a case of “state-sponsored” violence. The security situation in J-K was discussed on the first day of the meeting attended by top leaders of the saffron combine, including RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, and Shah, according to the Sangh’s Sahkar Bharti Mahamantri, Uday Joshi. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath who will join the conclave on Saturday, is expected to present a report on the performance of his five month old government.

The chief minister, sources said, will be briefing the Sangh leaders on various steps taken by his government including flag hoisting and recitation of the national anthem in Madrasas, revamping the  curriculum in Madrasas, clampdown on slaughterhouses and promoting the saffron agenda in general. Yogi Adityanath is also likely to brief the meeting on the recent deaths of infants in Gorakhpur, which had led to a lot of criticism of his government. The deteriorating law and order situation could also be red-flagged at the meeting. Other union ministers are also expected to join the three-day conclave from which the media has been kept out. A senior functionary of the RSS, Arun Kumar, spoke on the situation in Kashmir, Mr Joshi said. “Mr Kumar spoke about the internal security situation in Kashmir and stressed on bringing stone-pelters to the mainstream.  

“He also said that cases relating to stone-pelting and terror have come down in recent time, for which the central government must be appreciated,” Mr Joshi said.

Kumar is the former prant pracharak of the Jammu and Kashmir chapter of the RSS. This is the first RSS conclave in Uttar Pradesh after the BJP came to power in the state earlier this year.