Mohan Bhagwat

Mohan Bhagwat
Born	11 September 1950 Chandrapur, Maharashtra
Nationality	Indian
Ethnicity	Maharashtrian
Occupation	Sarsanghchalak (Chief of RSS)
Organization	Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Term	21 March 2009 – Incumbent
Predecessor	K. S. Sudarshan
Religion	Hinduism

Mohan Madhukar Bhagawat (born 11 September 1950) is the current Sarsanghchalak (or, "chief"), of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in India. He was chosen as the successor to K. S. Sudarshan in March 2009 .^[1]

Early life

Mohan Madhukar Bhagwat was born in a town called Chandrapur in Maharashtra. Bhagwat is a Maharashtrian Brahmin surname found mostly in Maharashtra. He comes from a family of RSS activists.^[1] His father Madhukar Rao Bhagwat, was the Karyavahak (secretary) for the 'Chandrapur' zone and later a Prant Pracharak (divisional promoter) for Gujarat.^[1] Mohan Bhagwat is the eldest son of his parents and has two younger brothers and a sister.

Bhagwat completed his schooling from 'Lokmanya Tilak Vidyalaya' and then the first year of his BSc from the Janata College in Chandrapur. He graduated in Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry from Government Veterinary College, Nagpur. He dropped out of his postgraduate course in Veterinary Sciences and became a pracharak (full-time promoter/worker) of the RSS towards the end of 1975.^[1]

Association with RSS

After working underground during the Emergency, Mohan Bhagwat became 'Pracharak' of Akola in Maharashtra in 1977 and rose within the organization responsible for Nagpur and Vidarbha regions.^[1]

He became 'Akhil Bharatiya Sharirik Pramukh,' (in-charge of physical training) for India, 1991 to 1999. Mohan was further promoted as 'Akhil Bharatiya Pracharak Pramukh,' (in-charge of RSS volunteers working full-time for India).

In 2000, when Rajendra Singh (RSS) and H. V. Sheshadri decided to step down as RSS Chief and General Secretary respectively due to poor health, K. S. Sudarshan was nominated as the new chief and Mohan Bhagwat became 'Sarkaryavaha,' (General Secretary).

Mohan Bhagwat was chosen as the Sarsanghchalak (Supreme Leader) of the RSS on 21 March 2009. He is one of the youngest leaders to head the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh after Dr. K. B. Hedgewar and M.S.Golwalkar.^[1]

As a recent PBS documentary explains, "The words fundamentalism, revivalism, and extremism are often used interchangeably to describe Hindu nationalism";^[2] see this recent BBC piece about the same topic:.^[3] The RSS is responsible for the banning of Wendy Doniger's book (among others). See.^[4]

In June 2015, the government of India ordered the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to provide round-the-clock protection to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat. At Z+ VVIP security cover, Bhagwat is one of the most protected Indians today. ^[5]

On 6 February 2014, The Economic Times reported that a web portal of a news magazine has provided audio recordings to substantiate Swami Aseemanand's claim that his terror acts were sanctioned by Mohan Bhagwat^[6] In a series of interviews with The Caravan magazine, Swami Aseemanand pointed towards Mohan Bhagwat's sanctioning of the Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif blasts. However, Aseemanand denied giving any such interviews when a controversy broke out on the publication of the interviews^[7]

References

1. Mohan Bhagwat: A nonpracticing veterinarian and RSS pracharak (full-time missionary,) 21 March 2009, Times of India,
2. "PBS". pbs.
3. "BBC". bbc.
4. "Why Free Speech Loses in India". newyorker.
5. "RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat gets Z+ VVIP security cover".
6. "Swami Aseemanand blamed Mohan Bhagwat for Terror: Report". timesofindia-economictimes.
7. Verma, Monica. "How Aseemanand’s confessions to Caravan magazine will help Narendra Modi in election year". Theforthright.com. Retrieved 2014-06-26.