The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and its impact on livelihood, economy and businesses and the protest over the farm legislations will be among the issues that will come up for discussion at the upcoming Karyakarni mandal, or the all-India executive council meeting, of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The course of the meeting itself has changed.
Earlier, the RSS, the ideological fount of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had called off the meeting of its highest decision-making body, the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, in March.
Now, it will hold the Karyakarni mandal at 11 places instead of a single location.
The RSS has divided the states into 11 zones, or kshetras.
A senior functionary said it is for the first time in the history of the Sangh that the Karyakarni mandal meeting, which is held around Diwali, will be hosted in multiple locations in a bid to adhere to the social distancing norms that have been enforced to curb the spread of Covid-19.
RSS chief Mohan Bhgawat and general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi will be present for all the 11 meetings, where no more than 40 functionaries will be in attendance.
The meetings will be held between October 27 and December 6 in Palakkad, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Jaipur, Prayag, Patna, Guwahati, Gurugram, Ghaziabad and Bhubaneswar.
The three-day annual meeting takes stock of the work carried out by the wings in the sphere of social service, communication, public relations and logistics.
The meeting also takes up issues that are in the news, or are ideologically relevant for the Sangh.
The issue of Dalit unrest following the Hathras incident — of an alleged rape by four upper caste men of a Scheduled Caste (SC) teenager (19) and her subsequent death on September 29 — is also likely to be discussed.
The Sangh carries out samajik samarasta, or social harmony campaigns, to eradicate casteisms and the Hathras incident, which has stoked unrest among the Dalits, has set off alarm bells.
A second functionary aware of the details said, the Sangh is of the view that the issue was not “handled properly and with sensitivity”.
“There is a feeling that the Uttar Pradesh (UP) administration handled the situation badly,” said the second functionary.
The second functionary said the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) has underlined the areas of concern about issues such as the minimum support price (MSP) not being included in the new farm laws following nationwide protests over the legislations.
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the labour arm of the Sangh, has also announced that it would protest against the three new labour codes.
