A day after it was reported that a Chinese delegation from the envoy’s office visited the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Nagpur, the organisation, in a clarification, denied the visit and said no such communication about the visit ever reached the Sangh office.
According to an RSS functionary, the team was not from the envoy’s office, but a group of Chinese scholars that came to learn Hindi in Wardha’s Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwa Vidyalaya (Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University). The team wanted to see some of the main tourist places in the city and their professor took them to the important ones, said the functionary. He added that the team that visited the Smruti Mandir (memorial of RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar) also visited other tourist places in Nagpur, including Zero Miles, Bapu Kutir and others.
The RSS further clarified that the team did not meet any functionary and the RSS office was not aware of such a visit. “Smruti Mandir is open to all like Rajghat. So, there is no need to keep a vigil there. It is a public place and has nothing to do with the RSS head office or senior functionaries of the RSS,” he added.
Another senior functionary added that the RSS headquarters keeps receiving requests from diplomatic missions and embassies seeking permission to visit and meet the senior functionaries because they want to understand the organisation. However, no such communication was received in this case, he added.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has always termed China as an “expansionist” neighbour. But the functionaries said the RSS has always stayed “open” for people “willing” to understand its ideology and views. And that is why the organisation always encourages foreign delegations if they want to see and understand the functioning and structure of the RSS.
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