SRINAGAR: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has opened an office in Barsoo village in Awantipora, south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, as it seeks to expand its reach among workers and trade unions in the Valley.
The office, a few kilometres from Lethpora, where a February 14, 2019, suicide attack killed 40 CRPF personnel, was inaugurated on October 16 by B Surendran, senior RSS pracharak and BMS All India Organising Secretary.
The move comes amid the RSS’s efforts to expand its organisational presence in Muslim-majority Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370 and the division of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019.
Sameer Kuchay, the RSS functionary in charge of BMS in Kashmir since 2020, told TNIE that more than 20 trade unions and 25,000 members are affiliated with the organisation in the Valley. They include the J&K Bank Officers Organisation, the South Kashmir Labour and Plumbers Union, and employees’ unions associated with the Khew and Khunmoh cement factories.
The BMS is also in talks with the All Jammu and Kashmir Patwar Association to bring it under its umbrella, Kuchay said.
Explaining the choice of Barsoo, he said, “Awantipora offered better accessibility for people travelling from different parts of the Valley. It is accessible from south Kashmir and north Kashmir. Labourers and trade union leaders find it more convenient to reach Barsoo than Srinagar”.
Kuchay said the BMS prioritised workers’ rights over political or religious considerations. “Our focus is on national interest and then labour interest. We work and fight for legal rights of employees and labourers, ensuring they are treated with dignity, prestige and honour”.
Asked whether people were apprehensive about joining an RSS-affiliated organisation, he said, “When labourers and trade union leaders joined us, they saw that we had nothing to do with politics, creed, caste or religion. Our focus is to ensure that labourers, who contribute to India’s development through their hard work and skills, receive their legal rights with dignity”.
“When they felt that we are fighting for their rights, they began talking positively about us and such our acceptability in the society increased,” he said.
Kuchay attributed the organisation’s outreach to the improved security situation following the abrogation of Article 370. “As there is peace, it has given us a peaceful platform to come openly and reach out to people and open our office in Awantpora”.
“People have realised that this is the time for our children to have pens and books in their hands instead of stones,” he said.
A native of Barsoo, Kuchay said he had followed RSS ideology since 2009 and formally joined the organisation in 2015, despite facing criticism from relatives and others.
“I faced a lot of criticism and initially, even my relatives used to call me a ‘Sanghi’. They would hesitate to have a cup of tea with me. My relatives would not touch a glass of water that I had drunk from and would instead use a piece of cloth to pick it up,” he said.
He said attitudes had since changed and “people have now accepted me and BMS as they felt we respect every thought and every religion and our only motive is to fight for legal rights of labourers and employees”.
While acknowledging the BMS’s ideological affiliation with the RSS, Kuchay said it functioned as a trade union focused on workers’ welfare.
Asked about plans to open more offices in Kashmir, he said the BMS was not immediately focused on setting up more offices but on reaching workers in remote areas and addressing their grievances.
“Our motive is to reach every far-flung area and every corner of Kashmir, connect with every labourer and employee,” added the RSS functionary.
