Praising CPM: Two top RSS men shown the door

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in its characteristic style, has shown the door to two senior officials, T G Mohandas and R V Babu, of the RSS-owned Ayodhya Printers in Kochi for publishing an article a month back deviating from the known stand of the RSS.

The provocation for the action against the two, who had a very long association with the RSS, is stated to be Mohandas’ article which appeared in its mouthpiece ‘Kesari’ equating RSS with the CPM. According to RSS insiders, Mohandas eulogised the CPM describing it as ‘purified by fire.’

Besides this, he trivialised the past sins of the CPM and forgot the sacrifices of the RSS workers who got killed at the hands of the CPM, they said.

It has been pointed out that the article also had a blasphemous claim that non-believers could become members of the RSS. He crossed the limits of pontificating on RSS ideology while he had no right to do so.

When asked to resign, he challenged the RSS state leadership by publishing another article in ‘Chidagni,’ an internally-circulated intellectual magazine of the Sangh, challenging the leadership by profuselyquoting former RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras.

Mohandas was mischievously translating an article originally written by Govindacharya in the Hindi magazine ‘Rashtra Dharma,’ sources said.

The article is believed to have warned the state leadership against their ‘dictatorship,’ it has been pointed out.

He had quoted Deoras that the days of ‘ekachalaka anuvarthithwam’ (days of single-point command) was over. The article also raised serious allegation against the BJP of fraudulently clinging on to power.  Mohandas allegedly challenged the authority of the leader, who wanted him to be removed, through the articles, sources said.

R V Babu, a manager with the Ayodhya Printers who is also the state general secretary of the Hindu Aikyavedi, resigned in protest against what he called the unceremonious removal of Mohandas.

When contacted, Mohandas confirmed his removal but said he did not want to comment on the developments as of now.

Responding to the issue, RSS national functionary and editor of ‘Kesari’ J Nandakumar, who was attending a national ‘baitakh’ of the RSS in Chennai told ‘Express’ that there was nothing to link the developments in Ayodhya Printers and Kesari.

"They (Mohandas and Babu), in fact, had been in no way linked to Kesari. One of them was a manager and another a staff at Ayodhya Printers. Both of them had put in their papers two months back on their own as they wanted to pursue some other business,’’ he said.

Referring to the media reports on his removal as the editor of Kesari, he clarified that what was appearing in the television channels was utter nonsense. The media is making a ‘’mountain out of a mole,’’ he said. He pointed out that the media was manipulating the chronological order of developments to show the RSS in bad light.

However, it has been pointed out that it would be embarrassing for the Sangh to sack a man for advocating peace and raising ideological issues through an article.

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