Shankaracharya unhappy over RSS changing its dress

The RSS should not have changed its trademark khaki half-pant to brown trousers, Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati of Dwarka Peeth has said in Bhopal.

Published on: Mar 16, 2016, 18:02:42 IST

Hindustan Times | By Neeraj Santoshi, Bhopal

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The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) should not have changed its trademark khaki half-pant to brown trousers, Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati of Dwarka Peeth has said.

“Today they are changing their dress. Tomorrow they may change their core ideology,” Saraswati said when asked if the RSS was moving with the times.

This is not the first time that Shankaracharya made a controversial statement. In December, he questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for terming “India as a country of Lord Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi” during his visit to the UK.

Shankaracharya had said when Modi can gift Bhagavad Gita to US President Barack Obama and to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, why can’t he say at the international forums that India was the land of Krishna and Rama.

In October, he released a controversial poster showing Lord Hanuman chasing away Sai Baba, claiming that Hindu sanatan dharma was being polluted by the spiritual guru.

On Monday, Shankaracharya was at Jharneshwar Mandir in Bhopal where chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan went to seek his blessings and invite him to the Simhastha starting April.

Shankaracharya said he was happy with the way Chouhan was making arrangements and preparations for the Simhastha.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi
Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers.Read More

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