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| Till they became Sarsanghachalaks Mohan Bhagwat and Balasaheb Deoras ate meat, |
Sujay Ghosh, July 22, 2015, New Delhi, NewsCrunch
A recent article in RSS mouthpiece Organiser, which called IITs and IIMs anti-Hindu has triggered differences within the tightly knit Hindutva organisation.
The article written by Sandeep Singh said IIT Roorkee was "anti Hindu" as it served non-vegetarian food in its canteen "in the holy city of Haridwar." He also cited several other reasons which purportedly made IITs anti-Hindu.
IIT Mumbai celebrated Kiss of Love while students at NIT, Rourkela, were "stopped" from holding Puja in community hall.
But it was the attack on the non-vegetarian food at IITs that created a furor even within RSS.
Dilip Deodhar, an RSS researcher, said eating meat did not make anyone anti-Hindu. Till they became Sarsanghachalaks Mohan Bhagwat and Balasaheb Deoras ate meat, he told Economic Times.
"Most RSS pracharaks ate non-veg food. There is nothing anti-Hindu about it," he added.
Organiser Editor, Prafulla Ketkar acknowledged that many within RSS had objected to the article. He said the article was personal opinion of Sandeep Singh. He also denied that Organiser was the mouthpiece of RSS. It had been only inspired by the organisation, he said.
But RSS has objected to IITs serving non-vegetarian food in the past as well. Last year, a group backed by RSS unit of Madhya Pradesh has written to Smriti Irani asking her to remove non-veg food from IITs and IIMs.
Non-vegetarian food would lead to the development of ‘Tamas’ (dark and unrighteous) nature among students,” the group had argued.