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    RSS quietly dumps 'Ghar Wapsi' pointsman Rajeshwar Singh after PM Modi expresses annoyance

    Synopsis

    This was a fallout of a meeting between RSS leaders and Modi during which the PM is said to have expressed his annoyance at the campaign that took the focus away from development.

    ET Bureau
    NEW DELHI: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has quietly dumped its functionary at the centre of the controversial 'Ghar Wapsi' reconversion into Hinduism programme in Uttar Pradesh that derailed last month's winter session of Parliament and has dented the Narendra Modi-led government's pro-development image in recent weeks.

    Rajeshwar Singh, a 55-year-old RSS pracharak who single-handedly steered the Ghar Wapsi or reconversion programme and has also led its Dharm Jagran campaign since 1996, has been removed as coordinator of programmes in western UP and Uttarakhand. This, Sangh Parivar sources said, was a fallout of a meeting between RSS leaders and Modi during which the PM is said to have expressed his annoyance at the high-decibel campaign that took the focus away from development and scuppered his government's ambitious legislative agenda.

    Singh confirmed to ET that he had decided not to work on any Sangh-related work now. "There has been much pressure on me in the past few days. It has spoiled my health. I want to rest at home now," said the long-time RSS pracharak.

    "I don't think I have done anything wrong. Everyone including RSS top leaders had assured me of support earlier," Singh told ET.

    "But the Sangh is not strong all the time. They may not want me now, but they may want me tomorrow," Singh told ET.
    Image article boday

    Several state RSS leaders that ET spoke to said Singh's removal was a fallout of top-level interactions between the RSS and BJP leadership including Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recent weeks. BJP leaders complained to the RSS leadership that the controversies surrounding conversion were taking the sheen off the government's "development agenda" and prevailed upon the Sangh to send out a message by removing Singh, they said. "All of our conversion programmes are also on hold for now," one RSS functionary in UP told ET.

    RSS spokesman Manmohan Vaidya confirmed Singh's removal, but said it was a decision made by the UP unit of the Sangh and not because of any pressure. "The Sangh doesn't work under pressure from anyone. It gives responsibilities to people at various times, makes decisions to remove them too, depending on its own issues," he told ET.

    The Ghar Wapsi programme, in which Christians and Muslims are "encouraged" to "return" to Hinduism, has been going on for decades, but mostly under the radar. However, Singh's brazen mass conversion programmes in Agra and his provocative public statements put a spotlight on it, triggering a controversy that was eventually used by Opposition parties to disrupt Parliament.

    Singh has also been removed from the helm of the Sangh-affiliated Dharma Jagran that he has been leading since 1996. However, he continues to be a pracharak with the Agra unit of RSS.

    Although Singh has been conducting Ghar Wapsi campaigns every December for many years now, he had intensified it this year and had planned for the conversion of 20,000 Muslims to Hinduism in UP alone this year. Many of his planned programmes, including one scheduled on Christmas Day, could not be held as planned because of the controversy it triggered.
     
    Originally from Etah in Uttar Pradesh, Singh was asked to head the re-conversions programme of the Sangh in 1996. He was the Sangh's pracharak of Mainpuri and Shahjahanpur before that.

    To implement the Ghar Wapsi programme, Singh had formed teams of 20-25 workers and had deployed one whole-time Sangh member in every block to work with Muslims and people of the backward Valmiki community.

    RSS functionaries in UP said Singh was the first to initiate Ghar Wapsi of Christians to Hindusim in the state. A Rajput himself, he would also go to houses of Muslims with Rajput names and urge them to come back to the "biradri".

    Singh's high-octane campaign of late, emboldened by the presence of a BJP-led government at the Centre, became a liability for the Modi-led administration that had fought elections on the plank of better governance and development, but found itself increasingly hobbled by controversies triggered by contentious Hindutva issues.

    The past few weeks had seen confabulations between BJP and RSS leaders during which several ministers are learnt to have impressed upon the Sangh leadership that the noise around contentious issues was affecting the government's image and functioning. A so-called Samanwaya or coordination meeting was held at union minister Nitin Gadkari's official residence on December 22 during which BJP President Amit Shah and top ministers such as Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu discussed the Rajya Sabha logjam with Sangh leaders Krishna Gopal and Bhaiyyaji Joshi, which prevented the government from passing crucial legislations such as the insurance Bill.


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