Imphal, Nov 20 (IANS) Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat arrived here on a three-day visit to Manipur on Thursday, his first since ethnic hostility broke out in the state in May 2023.
A state RSS functionary said that RSS Chief Bhagwat’s visit to Manipur is part of the country wide centenary celebrations of the RSS.
He added that a warm reception was accorded to the septuagenarian leader at the Imphal airport after he arrived here after a four-day visit to Assam.
From the airport, RSS Chief Bhagwat went to the RSS centre Bhaskara Prabha at Kongjeng Leikai in Imphal East district.
According to the state functionary, during RSS Chief’s three-day (November 20-22) stay in Imphal, he will hold a series of closed-door interactions with the karyakartas and members of the organisation.
RSS Chief Bhagwat will also interact with entrepreneurs, representatives of the tribal communities and civil society organisations from the Manipur valley and hill regions, prominent citizens and leaders of youth organisations in the state.
Amid the ongoing efforts to form a new government in Manipur, the RSS Chief’s visit will add a new dimension in the Northeastern state.
This was the RSS Chief’s first visit to Manipur since the ethnic violence between the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo tribal community broke out on May 3, 2023.
RSS Chief Bhagwat had last visited the state in 2022.
It is not yet confirmed whether the RSS Chief will visit the relief camps, where thousands of violence-hit displaced people have been staying for the last more than two years.
More than 260 people were killed, 1,500 were injured, and more than 70,000 people were displaced after the ethnic violence broke out after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’, organised in the hill districts to protest the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status.
Manipur has been under President’s Rule since February 13, four days after the resignation of N. Biren Singh from the Chief Minister’s post.
Singh, who quit the Chief Ministerial post on February 9, four days before the President’s Rule was imposed in the state due to prolonged ethnic violence.
As part of the RSS’s centenary celebrations, Bhagwat arrived in Guwahati on November 17 for a four-day tour to Assam, marking an important leg of the organisation’s nationwide programmes commemorating its 100th year.
The RSS Chief interacted with eminent citizens, intellectuals, scholars, editors, writers, and entrepreneurs in Guwahati.
RSS Chief Bhagwat’s visit comes at a time when the RSS is intensifying its engagement in the Northeast region, where it has significantly widened its presence over the past decade.
The Sangh’s centenary celebrations have been projected as an opportunity to strengthen its ideological footprint and connect with a wider cross-section of society.
During his visit to Guwahati, RSS Chief Bhagwat has appealed to the youth of Assam and Northeast India not to create any opinion about the RSS on the basis of pre-conceived notions or motivated propaganda.
The RSS Chief, while addressing a Youth Leadership Conclave at Sudarshanalaya in Barbari locality of the Guwahati city on Wednesday, also urged the youth to observe and understand the RSS closely.
Making several important remarks over the principles, ideals, and functioning of the RSS, Bhagwat also highlighted various debates and discussions surrounding the organisation in front of more than 100 young representatives from different fields.
He had commented that the RSS has now become a subject of public discussions.
“But those discussions should be based on factual information,” he asserted.
Talking about various sources of information, RSS Chief Bhagwat admitted that in different international platforms and some other digital sources which deliver information, more than 50 per cent of the information related to the RSS is either incorrect or incomplete.
“There is also a deliberate misinformation campaign against the RSS in different media outlets,” he said.
–IANS
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