The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), the parent organization of the BJP, is quite often discussed in the public domain for its non-participation in the freedom movement. While it has grown tremendously during the last few years, there are attempts by its ideologues to prove that it was a major player in the freedom struggle.
Rakesh Sinha, an RSS ideologue and BJP Member of Parliament, claims that the participation of K.B. Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS, invigorated the Civil Disobedience movement. There are other claims which go farther. C K Saji Narayan, the RSS in-charge of the labour front, states that the RSS was in the thick of the Indian freedom movement. One also recalls that the onetime RSS pracharak and Ex-Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had claimed to have participated in the freedom movement.
The debate came to the fore once again when the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, while speaking in Maharashtra Assembly, stated that the RSS never participated in the freedom movement and merely chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai (Hail Mother India) does not make one patriotic. In response to Thackeray’s statement, the RSS groomed ex-Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadanvis, went on to say that the RSS founder (Dr K. B. Hedgewar) was a freedom fighter.
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