RSS to hold four-day brainstorming session in Chennai

The RSS will hold a four-day brainstorming session for its over 30 parivar organisations, including the BJP and the Vishva Hindu Parishad, from Sunday in Chennai. The meet will chiefly look at organisational aspects and carry out a 'SWOT' (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to help the individual outfits with their respective "nationalistic goals." The session, though dubbed routine by the RSS, is expected to offer a "broad guideline" to reconcile the VHP's "Hindus cannot wait for eternity for Ram temple" line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent assertion on the Ayodhya issue, RSS sources indicated.

Modi had in an interview said any legislative initiative — like an ordinance for Ram temple in Ayodhya — will have to wait till the disposal of the dispute in the Supreme Court. The meet will take stock of BJP's electoral drubbing in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh besides the work of 30-plus outfits belonging to the larger Sangh parivar. "It is not a decision-making forum because every organisation is independent and has its own decision-making mechanism," an RSS spokesperson here told PTI when asked if the meet will take crucial decisions on key issues. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who has arrived in Chennai, will be briefed by 50 senior office-bearers representing different organisations about the work of each of the outfits.

The spokesperson described the exercise as a "kind of audit" of the progress made and help fine-tune the "nationalistic focus," by looking at new avenues to accelerate performance. The views expressed were like providing "value-addition", the spokesperson said. The office-bearers come with valuable inputs from the grassroots level and will share them at the meeting and that will be enriching for the other outfits too, he said. While BJP is the "most-known outfit," in the RSS family, there are several organisations working in different areas such as the Seva Bharathi, which is into social service, relief and rehabilitation, and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, focused on tribal welfare.

(With inputs from agencies.)