On Vijayadashami 1996, Rajendra Singh gave the annual address at the gathering in Nagpur. This page summarises what was reported about it.
The day
- Date: 21 October 1996 — the calendar date of Vijayadashami; our sources do not record the exact day of the gathering
- Place: Nagpur
- Address by: Rajendra Singh (the head of the organisation at the time was Prof. Rajendra Singh)
What the address covered
In his 1996 Dussehra address, Rajendra Singh rebuked the BJP for straying from the path of Hindutva, which EPW read as support for the reassertion of Hindutva over 'Mandal' social engineering inside the party. Hansen and Jaffrelot's volume reports that in the same Vijayadashami address he said reservations should not exceed 50 per cent of posts, invoking the need for integrity, ability and merit. The volume frames this view as paternalist.
As reported
it is also necessary that integrity, ability and meritorious qualities
Context
Came after the BJP's 13-day government (May 1996) and its poor showing in the UP Assembly polls; the VHP was also signalling revival of the Mathura issue.
How sure is this?
This account is supported by two or more independent sources, listed below.
In the archive
Sources & copyright status
- Economic and Political Weekly (30 Nov 1996), report on the BJP national executive
- T.B. Hansen & C. Jaffrelot (eds), The BJP and the Compulsions of Politics in India (OUP, 1998), Internet Archive full-text search snippets
- Pralay Kanungo, RSS's Tryst with Politics: From Hedgewar to Sudarshan (Manohar, 2002), Internet Archive full-text search snippets
- Historical facts: not subject to copyright. Quotations are short extracts as reported in the sources cited; speeches are summarised in our own words.
- Commentary and translations on this page: original to The Hindu Book. © The Hindu Book, all rights reserved.
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