NEW DELHI: Madhav Govind Vaidya, who passed away on Saturday in Nagpur, was an ideologue of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and eyewitness of its growth. He worked closely with six heads of the outfit from MS Golwalkar to Mohan Bhagwat. Besides being the first spokesperson of the organisation, he also edited Tarun Bharat, a pro-RSS publication. Vaidya, 97, had been ailing briefly in Nagpur. He reportedly had recovered from Covid- 19 infection.
A father figure within the RSS, most of Vaidya’s family has been working for the outfit. He has left behind his wife Sunanda, five sons, and three daughters. Two of his sons, Manmohan and Ram Vaidya, are senior functionaries of the RSS. “We have lost a veteran patron. Baburaoji (MG Vaidya) was a renowned scholar of Sanskrit. He was an eminent journalist.
He excelled as a member of the Maharashtra legislative council. He was an eyewitness to the works of the RSS,” said the RSS chi e f Moha n Bhagwat. Vaidya was part of the organisation when it decided whether to take a political plunge or not.
He later spearheaded the expansion of the RSS’ political offshoot Jan Sangh in Maharashtra. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his condolence message, acknowledged Vaidya’s contribution in strengthening the BJP also.
Within the RSS, Vaidya was a historian, reeling out information and anecdotes of the outfit from the days of the founder KB Hedgewar. Vaidya, while teaching at Nagpur’s Hislop College, had joined the RSS in 1943. BJP MP from Nagpur and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari credited Vaidya for shaping the ideological depth of the RSS. Vaidya was at the forefront of Sangh’s ideological laboratory as an Akhil Bhartiya Baudhik Pramukh, the body essentially mandated for the ideological training of the cadre.