How RSS Betrayed Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

subhash chandra bose

Humble greetings on the occasion of 128th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on 23rd January.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is going to be 100 years old on the coming Dussehra, but in these 100 years it could not produce even a single national level leader and the biggest opportunity to become a national level leader was the freedom struggle of India, from which Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh kept itself away so that the British rulers would not get angry. On the contrary, they have been engaged in the work of recruiting soldiers for the British army and police. This fact was told by Acharya Vinoba Bhave while speaking about RSS in the founding meeting of Sarva Seva Sangh which was held for five days in March 1948 in Sevagram after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

But despite that, the Sangh keeps claiming from time to time that they have done Parakram Parv during the country’s independence! Which is a complete lie. I am presenting a sample of this lie, which will help any common reader to know whether the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was really involved in the freedom movement or not. The incident of RSS founder and first Sangh chief Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar refusing to meet Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose has been exposed by one of the prominent eyewitnesses of that incident and one of the founding Panchayatan of the Sangh, Shri Balaji Huddar himself in an article written in Illustrated Weekly.

He keeps making claims about Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, a martyr of the freedom movement, about how much respect the Sangh has for him. And what kind of injustice did the Congress or especially Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru do to them? The RSS is constantly trying to propagate these things from behind the scenes through its Saffron Digital Army. This is clearly exposed by this article by Shri Balaji Huddar.

This incident is from 1939, before Netaji went abroad to make India independent. His main objective was to join the INA started by the RSS. So this is an incident of an attempt made to meet the then head of RSS, Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. The person who made this attempt, Balaji Huddar, one of the founders of RSS, said that “RSS is only busy in discussions of the glorious past of Hindu religion, but it remains decidedly away from the current freedom movement.” Seeing this, Balaji Huddar said that “RSS cannot do anything except revolving around itself”.

Balaji Huddar had gone to Spain and participated in the war against Spanish dictator Franco along with the International Brigade. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose also knew this. Therefore, in order to make his own efforts, Netaji resigned from the post of Congress President after the Tripuri Congress. And he started preparing to wage a direct war against the British Raj by establishing the Azad Hind Fauj. And he first started efforts in India to include people in it. And that is why he had come to Mumbai. And one day he called Balasaheb Huddar to meet him at night and Balaji Huddar saw that a gentleman named Shah was also with Netaji, Netaji said that I will go to Nashik and meet Dr. Hedgewar and ask him to fix a meeting between him and Subhash Babu. Hedgewar was staying in Nashik at that time. So Shah and I went to Nashik together, and when I went alone to meet Hedgewar in his room, I saw that Hedgewar was joking with other volunteers. I asked the volunteers to go out for a while, and told Hedgewar ji that “I have come to meet you mainly on the request of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. And Netaji is very keen to meet you, and that is why he has sent me.” Then Hedgewar said that “I am very ill, and I cannot even speak. That is why I am unable to meet anyone.” I tried to explain to him a lot that “one should not miss the opportunity to meet such a big leader of Congress”, but he was repeatedly giving excuses of his illness. I said that a gentleman named Shah, who is close to him, is standing outside, at least you should tell him all this yourself, otherwise Netaji will feel that I did not let this meeting happen. But he did not agree to this and covered himself with a sheet while sleeping on the bed, so I was forced to go out and the people who were already making fun of Hedgewar started laughing and taunting him as soon as they went inside that room. And this initiative of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was taken before going to Germany.


After reading this episode, does RSS have any moral right to say that it was involved in India’s freedom movement? RSS was founded in 1925, so this year is the year of celebrating the centenary of RSS, so my humble suggestion to RSS is that how has it crossed the journey of hundred years? And what achievements has it got because of that, it should honestly introspect on this and when it had stood on the ground during the biggest phase of the freedom movement (1920-47) and what contribution did it really make at that time? It should definitely think about this because what contribution has the organization which is showing the most patriotism today made to the freedom of our country?

Dr Suresh Khairnar is Ex. President of Rashtra Sewa Dal

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