Former Goa Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh head Subhash Velingkar on Thursday blamed Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Manohar Parrikar for his removal, PTI reported. Velingkar, who was sacked on Wednesday, said Gadkari and Parrikar were “powerful at the Centre” and had “strongly lobbied” for his removal from the post.
Velingkar added that the two ministers “must have wrongly fed the RSS high command” on his opposition to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s stand on the issue of the medium of instruction in schools in Goa. Calling himself the “focal point” of the language movement, he said Gadkari and Parrikar were trying to “break” the campaign through his removal, and that they will later “repent for doing it”.
The former Goa unit chief also announced that the state chapter of the Sangh will function independently of its parent body till at least next year’s Assembly elections. “Shakhas [branches] will continue. We have all the machinery in place.”
The RSS reportedly sacked Velingkar two days after he announced the formation of a new political party to oppose the BJP in Goa. Senior Sangh leader Manmohan Vaidya had said Velingkar “wanted to get into some political activity” but was not allowed to do so as he was a member of the RSS.
At least 400 Goa RSS workers resigned in solidarity with him, with state Chief Minister Laxmikant Parksekar also expressing his unhappiness with the decision. According to The Hindu, Velingkar’s Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch protested against the state BJP government for patronising English-medium schools and sanctioning grants to Archdiocese-led primary institutions.
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