Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday attended a citizens’ conference in Siliguri, where he spoke on social reconstruction, civic responsibility and the duties of citizens, while outlining initiatives undertaken as part of the organisation’s centenary celebrations.
The meeting is viewed as a significant development by the saffron ecosystem ahead of the Bengal Assembly elections, especially in north Bengal, where the BJP outperformed the Trinamool Congress in recent elections.
Bhagwat, who arrived in Siliguri on Wednesday, addressed a conference of teenagers and youths on Thursday, urging them to engage with people and propagate the RSS ideology.
On Friday, he met around 200 people from diverse walks of life who had gathered from all eight districts of north Bengal and neighbouring Sikkim.
Speaking about the RSS chief’s address, Samir Kumar Ghosh, an RSS leader from north Bengal, said Bhagwat emphasised that building a healthy and prosperous society required positive forces to work together in a complementary manner and move in a common direction.
“He also underlined that character-building among individuals is possible only when people maintain a living and active relationship with society,” Ghosh said.
Bhagwat called upon members to work towards dispelling “misconceptions” about the RSS, Ghosh added.
“He said there is no other organisation like the Sangh in India and that it cannot be understood through any fixed methodology or conventional organisational framework,” he said.
During the conference, Bhagwat announced that as part of the centenary celebrations, RSS volunteers would go door to door to spread awareness of "Panch Parivartan" — five key behavioural changes that the organisation has been emphasising.
Although the RSS has traditionally maintained that it is organisationally separate from the BJP, political observers believe Bhagwat’s visit and the proposed outreach programme are aimed at consolidating the BJP’s support base through the dissemination of RSS ideology across north Bengal.