Mohan Bhagwat signals RSS workers free to join Kashi, Mathura agitations

On the concluding day of a three-day lecture series in Delhi, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat made his most explicit remarks yet on the Kashi and Mathura temple disputes, saying swayamsevaks are free to associate themselves with movements demanding the sites, even as the RSS as an organization will not lead them.

“The Sangh will not join these agitations. We were part of only one movement — the Ram temple — and saw it through. But in the Hindu heart, Kashi, Mathura, and Ayodhya hold significance. The Hindu society will continue to demand them. Sangh swayamsevaks may participate if they wish,” Bhagwat told a packed audience at the series ‘100 Years of the Sangh’s Journey – New Horizons’.

He urged the Muslim community to cede claims over the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi and the Shahi Eidgah in Mathura. “It is a matter of just three places. If I can say this as head of the Sangh, then the other side can also say, ‘Take them.’ That would be a great step towards harmony,” Bhagwat said.

The remarks mark a shift from his 2019 statement after the Ayodhya verdict, when he had declared the Sangh would not be involved in fresh agitations. With his recent comments, Bhagwat placed Kashi and Mathura firmly back in the Sangh’s ideological frame, recalling that the two sites had featured in RSS resolutions even before Ayodhya.

Bhagwat also dismissed perceptions that the RSS dictates terms to the ruling BJP. “It is wrong to say the Sangh decides everything. I run shakhas — that is my expertise. Running the state is theirs. We may advise, but the decision is theirs,” he said, while admitting that conflicts often arise among affiliates within the Sangh Parivar.

On wider issues, the RSS chief spoke of “Akhand Bharat,” stressed the need for transparency in leadership, and clarified that he had never set a retirement age of 75 for himself or others. Bhagwat, who turns 75 next month, said, “In the Sangh, if I am asked to run a shakha at 80, I will have to do it.”