Rebel Goa RSS leader's outfits warn Parrikar, Parsekar

After Subhash Velingkar's controversial ouster as Goa RSS chief, efforts are being made by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar to oust the former sanghachalak from an education society linked to the Sangh, leaders of a pro-regional languages group alleged on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference in Panaji, Subhash Desai, co-convenor of the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch said: "We are warning Parrikar and Parsekar to stop targeting Velingkar."

He said, "They conspired with top BJP party leaders to sack Velingkar as sanghachalak and now they are trying to sack him as secretary of Vidya Prabodini, an institution Velingkar has mentored from a scratch."

Desai's accusation comes a couple of weeks after Parrikar and Parsekar, both of whom are members of the trust which runs the Vidya Prabodini group of schools, signed a resolution seeking the ouster of Velingkar, who has been secretary of the trust since 2014.

Velingkar's three-year tenure as the secretary of the trust ends in 2017.

Velingkar has mentored several generations of state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Parrikar and Parsekar, over the years. He was sacked from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) a couple of months back.

The former Sangh leader's removal as the Goa unit chief followed his consistent criticism, as a leader of the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch, of the BJP-led coalition government in Goa for its decision to continue with financial grants from the state education ministry to primary schools using English as a medium of instruction.

Soon after his ouster, Velingkar formed a rebel RSS wing in Goa and the regional languages front led by him also founded a political party, the Goa Suraksha Manch. These aim, according to him, to defeat the BJP in the forthcoming state assembly polls, which are likely to be held in early 2017.

Velingkar's criticism and his new party, a large chunk of whose members are former RSS swayamsevaks, are now emerging as a threat to the BJP, which fears a division of votes in the upcoming polls.

"If the BJP continues to harass Velingkar, the BJP will be in for a rude surprise when elections are announced," BBSM member Uday Bhembre said.

--IANS

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