The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Goa is divided over the move by its sacked leader Subhash Velingkar and his supporters to float a parallel outfit as the Sangh's "Goa prant" and function independently of the parent body.
"I am still with RSS with Nagpur headquarters. You cannot have a separate RSS prant like this. I am not with the group which has done so," said Datta Bhikaji Naik, a senior RSS leader in Goa.
Even as a large number of RSS workers and supporters, including some office bearers, have pledged support to Velingkar, who was removed as the state chief recently, a sizable number of swayamsevaks are averse to part ways with the Sangh.
Naik said, in his individual capacity, he has been supporting the demands of the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch which was floated by Velingkar to campaign for primacy of regional languages as medium of instruction as part of which he has taken on the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state.
"I don't know what the BBSM will do in future," Naik said, referring to its announcement to float a political party ahead of the Goa assembly polls in March 2017.
Velingkar was "relieved" from his charge as Goa Vibhag Sangh Chalak by the RSS after he along with BBSM leaders announced the intention to form a political outfit to fight the BJP in the forthcoming polls.
Another senior leader Ratnakar Lele also sought to distance himself from the move.
"I am not with them," he said, adding that 80 per cent of the swayamsevaks would not go with the new prant.
Lele said the decision to have a separate prant by Velingkar-led group was unfortunate.
Velingkar was sacked as the chief of RSS in Goa after he crossed swords with the BJP government over the medium of instruction issue with members of his outfit even showing black flags to party chief Amit Shah recently.
Velingkar, who claimed that hundreds of RSS workers and supporters have rallied behind him, on Thursday asserted that the Sangh unit in the coastal state will function independently of the parent body, at least till the assembly polls.
He said the RSS in Goa will detach itself from the main unit (parent body headquartered in Nagpur) till the state assembly elections and after that they will request to get associated with the Sangh.
However, the RSS had debunked Velingkar's claims that the local unit will function independently, saying none of its units can dissociate from the outfit and new office bearers for the state will be announced soon.
Velingkar, the convener of BBSM which is fighting for withdrawal of grants to English medium schools and for the cause of promoting regional languages as medium of instruction, has been at loggerheads with the saffron party as well as Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar.
Meanwhile, the Goa chief minister declined to comment on Velingkar's charge that Union ministers Manohar Parrikar and Nitin Gadkari were behind the action against him.
"You can ask Parrikar and Gadkari about it. They are in Delhi. How can Laxmikant Parsekar who is in Goa comment on it? How can I comment on their behalf?" Parsekar asked during a press meet in Goa when questioned about Velingkar's statement.
"Since last two days, I have been repeatedly saying, I would not like to comment on it (RSS action). It is their internal matter," he said.
On his views as a RSS swayamsevak about the formation of new Goa prant by Velingkar and his supporters, Parsekar said, "There cannot be a new prant in Goa."
"In the RSS, everything is decided by the central leadership," the chief minister added.
Meanwhile, Subhash Velingkar has received support from the Shiv Sena, which said he has done no crime by demanding that regional languages be promoted in Goa schools.
Sena said the BJP government came to power in Goa on the back of its election promise of promoting regional languages, but reneged from it now.
"If he (Velingkar) asked the government to not give grants to English medium schools and promote Konkani and Marathi, what crime has he done? When Manohar Parrikar was Leader of Opposition, he had demanded the same thing from then Congress government," it said in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana on Friday.
"Parrikar, with help from Velingkar had also initiated a movement to press for their demands which resulted in them getting the reigns of power. But they (the BJP) went back on their words and supported English medium schools. They have broken their promise," it said.
Sena said the recent events in Goa were a classic example of "attempting to bury the movement" to promote one's local language and claimed that the state government there was "plagued by corruption, adultery and anarchy."
"If on one side sympathy is being shown for Baluchistan, how correct is it to cut the feathers of a bird that is toiling hard to promote local language in one's homeland. This is an attempt to murder Goa's culture," the BJP ally said.
In Panaji, the local Shiv Sena unit said the decision to sack Velignkar will turn out to be "suicidal" for Sangh and the BJP.
"The decision to relieve Velingkar from the post of Goa Vibhag Sang chalak will be suicidal for both RSS and the BJP. Parties like Shiv Sena are firmly behind Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch and Velingkar as he is fighting for mother tongue," Sena's Goa Chief Sudip Tamankar told reporters.
He said the Sena would support the cause of mother tongue and Hindutva in the state.
"The decision amounts to killing our mother tongue. He has been a crusader of education in mother tongue and Hindutva. Both the issues are very important," Tamankar said.
IMAGE: Members within the RSS are split over the decision to sack Goa unit chief Velingkar. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters
