Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) completed 95 years last week, but it looks like it is getting younger as it grows up. The organisation never looked so young as it looks today. It can be said that RSS, which came into being in 1925, is passing from its golden period.

RSS was founded in 1925 on Dussehra by Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a former Congressman, in Nagpur.

Today, the Sangh has become one of the largest voluntary organizations in the world with more than 8 million members. The number RSS ‘Shakhas’ has also crossed 60,000 in the country and abroad. Also, the number of its affiliates is 30 and of which Vidya Bharati runs more than 14,000 schools across the country while more than 25,000 schools are run under Saraswati Shishu Mandir.

The Sangh had also introduced a new concept ‘Ekal Vidyalaya’ where a single teacher runs such schools and the number of such schools across the country has crossed the 1 lakh mark

RSS is considered an important contributor to the BJP’s roots in states like Assam and Tripura. At present, many Pracharaks of the Sangh occupy the position of Chief Minister and Governors in various states.

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself is one of the old Pracharaks of the Sangh. It is said that this time in the Bihar Assembly elections, dozens of BJP candidates have got tickets on the recommendation of the Sangh.

In the recent organizational reshuffle of the BJP, Sangh pracharak and party’s organization general secretary BL Santosh is believed to have played a crucial role. He was instrumental in forming the team of the party president JP Nadda.

Looking at the possibility of assembly elections and political situation in West Bengal, the cadre of RSS had become active in advance and perhaps that is why it is not so easy for people outside the Sangh to stay in the BJP.