He says RSS in Goa seriously compromised with its ethics and morals
Panaji: Former Goa chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Subhash Velingkar in his recently released Marathi book ‘Lotangan’ (Total surrender) has exposed the truth behind the split in the Goa unit of the RSS, after the Manohar Parrikar government came to power in Goa, in 2012 and refused to implement the demands of the supporters of the medium of instruction agitation, including withdrawal of the government grants to the aided English primary schools.
Speaking about the book, Velingkar said that once the Parrikar-led Bharatiya Janata Party government managed to capture the seat of power, it completely ignored the policy of having primary education in the state, with mother tongue as the medium of instruction.
“And unfortunately the RSS, pressurised by the central BJP leadership silently agreed to this departure of the Parrikar government from its basic principle,” he added, pointing out, “Furthermore, the central leadership of the RSS also pressurised its Swayamsevaks or workers from Goa not to continue with the related agitation.”
Velingkar, who was the key leader in this agitation, further said that after the U-turn of the Parrikar government on the medium of instruction issue, if the Swayamsevaks desired to stay in Goa, then they would probably have to completely surrender before the local BJP unit.
“Therefore 95% of the Swayamsevaks from Goa left the RSS,” he informed, adding that the RSS in Goa seriously compromised with its ethics and morals.
Speaking further, Velingkar said that there are many stories floating around about the reasons for the split of RSS in Goa. “In the future times, these stories could be taken as gospel truth, and the real reason behind the split as well as the sacrifices of these Swayamsevaks could be forgotten,” he observed, mentioning that this very thought made him write the book.
The former Goa Sangh Pramukh also noted that all the reputation earned by the RSS in Goa was lost the moment it totally surrendered before the BJP.
“I saw that efforts were being made in Goa to destroy the moralistic guidelines framed and implemented by all the Sarsanghchalaks or chiefs of the RSS and decided to discard the Sangh,” he revealed, adding that he however has not discarded the thoughts imbibed in him by the Sangh.
Velingkar also stated that once the Parrikar government betrayed the MoI agitation, the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch became the people’s agitation, which reached the nook and corner of Goa.
Furthermore, Velingkar said that even after Parrikar left for New Delhi in the capacity of defence minister, he continued taken all the MoI related decisions single-handedly and did not take the then chief minister, Laxmikant Parsekar into confidence. “Therefore, he himself appointed all the members on the committee set up by the government to decide on the MoI issue, so that these members did not go against the views of Parrikar on this issue,” he added. The former Goa Sangh Pramukh lamented that the scheme approved by the Parsekar government to provide a special grant of `400 per student, every month studying in aided primary schools having and Konkani and Marathi as the medium of instruction (MoI), was later discontinued by the Pramod Sawant government.