Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has agreed to meet Bhumata Brigade president Trupti Desai after she sent the organisation a letter concerning women's issues.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has agreed to meet Bhumata Brigade president Trupti Desai after she sent the organisation a letter concerning women's issues. The response, conveyed to Ms Desai through a call, said that a meeting could be held after the RSS camps were through.
Through a press release, Ms Desai said that they received the telephonic message through RSS Sampark Pramukh (PRO) Aniruddh Deshpande on Tuesday.
The message states that the RSS camps would continue till June and the organisation’s officebearers would be busy. Hence the meeting could be held after the camps conclude and the date would be notified later, Ms Desai said.
Mr Deshpande confirmed that he had passed on the message over the telephone that a meeting would be held. “No other scope or issue of the meeting was discussed by me with Ms Desai,” he said.
Earlier, Bhumata Brigade, in a letter to the RSS chief, had demanded that women should be given equal opportunities in the organisation. The letter sent on April 26 states that: ‘The organisation had a women’s wing Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, but it had not done any aggressive and ‘bhariv’ (constructive) work for women.’
‘During all RSS programmes, there is a portrait of Bharat Mata, but women who represent Bharat Mata are not active in the programmes,’ the letter stated.
‘Presently pro-RSS governments are at the Centre and in the state. It is a nationwide organisation. If your organisation gives equality to women, it will become an ideal, which will be followed by other organisations. Hence, your organisation should take this revolutionary step, the letter stated,’ added the letter.
Bhumata Brigade shot to fame, when it took up the issue of equality to women in temple sanctums, which were earlier accessible only to men. It successfully helped open up the Shani Shingnapur Temple in Ahmednagar, Amba Temple in Kolhapur and Trimbakeshwar Temple in Nashik.
Later, it set sights on Islamic shrine Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai. The two agitations to enter Haji Ali dargah were unsuccessful and the Haji Ali Sab Ke Liye Forum disassociated itself from the Bhumata organisation.
Ms Desai has asserted that she would enter the dargah through guerilla tactics. Now, the organisation will be launching an agitation in Sabrimala Temple in South India shortly.
