As a damage-control exercise, the RSS has asked its cadres in Madhya Pradesh to refrain from displaying weapons during ‘Path Sanchalan’ (Route March) programmes, leave aside firing shots in the air. The oral advisory has followed the death of an RSS activist who died from a bullet fired by another activist on Dussehra.

It’s common for RSS activists to conduct route marches and display weapons like swords and guns, and occasionally fire celebratory shots in the air.

“Only a handful of trained activists who guard the dhwaj (flag) and lead the march will be allowed to display weapons, the rest will have to keep them covered,” sources in the Sangh told this paper on Saturday.

The advisory came after local leaders met former RSS chief K S Sudarshan, who has made the Bhopal his home.

Sudarshan expressed displeasure at the growing practice of carrying guns and firing shots, an insider said, admitting that the Sangh leadership was worried by the negative publicity after Naresh Motwani’s death.

The cadres have been asked to ensure that from next Dusshera onwards only legal and unloaded weapons be worshipped during ‘Shastra Puja’.

The organisation is worried because the incident occurred when it’s finding it difficult to increase its membership and get youth to attend shakhas.

The 50-year-old died when Shyamlal Gurjar, at whose instance he had gone to attend ‘Shastra Puja’ at Saraswati Shishu Mandir School in Kotra-Sultanabad, accidentally fired from a pistol. The local RSS leaders had tried to mislead the police that Motwani died while cleaning a gun after ‘Shastra Puja’ and the police accepted the version. Motwani’s family confronted the police and the government saying he never possessed a gun, and punched holes in the police theory saying weapons are cleaned before Shastra Puja, not after.

... contd.