Mangaluru: RSS Picture on Cow Slaughter Not Clear, Till We Study Indian Economy Driven by Cows – TS Venkatesh

Mangaluru: Kshetra Sampark Pramukh of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), T S Venkatesh held an interaction with the mediapersons at Hotel Ocean Pearl here, on February 18.

Venkatesh belongs to the Public Relations cell of the RSS and is active in 3 states of Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Before the interaction, Venkatesh gave an insight of the RSS and its ideologies.

“RSS is open to all and has no registration fee to join. It is like an open university which promotes the overall development of a person. RSS has given the nation a lot in terms of service which aims at development of families, villages, environment, animals, water bodies and so on,” he said.

Venkatesh said, “We have several organizations like ABVP that are inspired by the Sangh activities. We have organizations involved in rag picking, Youth For Seva (YFS) which works in slum areas and helps to educate children, blood banks which help everyone that are in a need of blood and specially patients who suffer from thalassemia stand at utmost benefit. So far we have conducted 1,38,667 seva achievements in the sector of education, health, social and economic sector. BBC ranked RSS as the world’s largest voluntary organization.”

“We still have a long way to go and hope many will join us in this noble endeavor,” he added.

“We have a separate cell for women and also for minorities. RSS is a Hindu organization and by Hindu, I mean all Indians. Hindutva is not a religion but a way of life,” he said.

When quizzed about the lukewarm response of RSS towards issues like Yettinahole when compared to huge response given to issues like cow slaughter, Venkatesh said, “There are different organizations within the RSS that deal with specific issues. The job of RSS is just to run ‘Shakas’ and train the members in various aspects of Hindutva.”

Speaking on the issue of cow slaughter, Venkatesh said, “We are definitely not against the food preferences of any community but what we want is to preserve the Indian cow breed. There is a lot of economy that is being driven by cows, which is to be studied. The picture will not be clear until we reflect on this study.”

When asked about the negative remarks about RSS and its affiliated organizations on social media platforms, Venkatesh said, “These are just baseless allegations which may be politically motivated. RSS does not believe in hurting anyone as it is against our culture. But if anyone is spreading anti-India propaganda, then we are against them. There were even allegations that ABVP had gained a lot of strength in university politics after BJP election in the general election. But it is not so and BJP doesn’t have any attitude of a big brother towards ABVP.”