IIT directors asked to facilitate alumni interactions with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in US?
Congress Accuses IIT Leadership of Mobilising Alumni for RSS Chief's US Tour
The Allegation
Indiadailyupdate.com – On Tuesday, the Indian National Congress claimed that directors at multiple Indian Institutes of Technology had been directed to contact their former students and arrange meetings with Mohan Bhagwat, the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, ahead of his planned trip abroad. The party framed the move as an improper use of institutional authority for a political-organisation purpose.
Context of the Trip
Bhagwat's itinerary, commencing August 25, spans the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Local Indian-diaspora-linked groups and associations have extended the invitations for the three-nation tour.
Political Backlash
Jairam Ramesh, general secretary of the Congress party, took to X to voice what he called an entirely unacceptable deployment of IIT leadership.
"A number of IIT Directors, distinguished professionals in their own right, have been mobilised to reach out to alumni to interact with Mohan Bhagwat when he is in the US later this month. This is totally unacceptable."
Ramesh drew a sharp line between alumni engaging with elected officials and alumni being steered toward a political-organisation leader.
"Asking alumni to interact with PMs, CMs, Ministers, and MPs is one thing. But the RSS head?"
RSS Response
Neither the RSS nor the government issued an immediate rebuttal to the Congress charge. However, Sunil Ambekar, who serves as the RSS's Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh (national publicity and media head), posted on X that the upcoming tour had been arranged solely at the behest of local organisations. He further noted that the timing — landing squarely in the centenary year of the RSS's founding — was purely coincidental.
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