Dattatreya Hosabale has been elected as Sar-karyawah or Secretary General of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Hosabale, who was elected at the RSS triennial Pratinidhi Sabha in Bengaluru on Saturday (March 20), replaces Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi.
Hosabale, 66, was born on December 1, 1954 and belongs to the village of Sorab in the Shimoga district of Karnataka.
It was prepared at Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of RSS, of which he was organizing secretary (sangathan mantri) for almost 12 years.
Hosabale is likely to have been in charge of RSS affairs for at least 10 years. While Sarsanghchalak (head of RSS) is the philosopher and guide of the organization, Sar-karyavah is the one in charge of the daily activities of the organization.
Hosabale, whom his fraternity calls Datta, joined RSS in 1968 and was posted to ABVP in 1972, where he became a full-time worker in 1978. He was appointed mantri sangathan of ABVP in December 1992 at the Kanpur session .
He returned to RSS in 2003 and was appointed sah-bauddhik pramukh (joint responsibility for intellectual activities) of the group in 2004. Then, in 2009, he became sah-sarkaryawah in Suresh Joshi’s team, when the latter replaced Mohan Bhagwat. in the mail.
As he was named Sar-karyawah today, Hosabale received the blessings of sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat and the outgoing Sar-karyawah Joshi by touching his feet.
Considered very close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Hosabale’s name was proposed by Gujarat’s regional sanghchalak Ashok Sohoney and endorsed by five other delegates. In fact, his name was circulating for many weeks. In an indication of things to come, it was featured in several recent RSS shows Joshi was supposed to attend. His name had even come up in 2015 and 2018, but Joshi was re-elected both times.
After school at his birthplace and Sagar (Taluk HQ), Hosabale moved to Bengaluru to continue his university education and joined fNational College. Subsequently, he obtained his Master’s Degree in English Literature from the University of Bengaluru.
Hosabale is fluent in Kannada, Hindi, English, Tamil, and Sanskrit. He founded a monthly magazine in Kannada called Aseema. He enjoyed being close to almost all of Karnataka’s writers and journalists, notably YN Krishnamurthy and Gopal Krishna Adiga.
Hosabale was imprisoned for more than a year under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the fight to restore democracy in the face of the Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government.
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At the ABVP, he launched several new initiatives. One of its key projects was the Center for Youth Development in Guwahati, Assam and the World Organization of Students and Youth (WOSY).
He is the first Sar-karyawah, most of whose time as a pracharak was spent in an anushangik (frontal organization), that is, ABVP. Before him, Madandas Devi was a sah-sarkaryawah for nine years, but he was never a Sar-karyawah.
Various RSS pracharaks have been in the RSS front organizations, from Dattopant Thengdi to Ashok Singhal, but were never elected as RSS Sar-karyawah.
As a sah-sarkaryawah, Hosabale is currently based in Lucknow and is closely involved in ensuring coordination between the RSS and the BJP there.
After the announcement that it would be Sar-karyawah, Hosabale addressed the delegates for almost five minutes and told them that his family’s main occupation was agriculture and that they were also in the betel nut (supari) trade.
The RSS is currently preparing for the centennial celebrations (1925-2025), which will begin in October 2024. The next ABPS is also in March 2024, which means that Hosabale is likely to remain in office for another term.
Hosabale was one of the six sah-sarkaryavahs (deputy general secretaries) who assisted Joshi. RSS watchers see his election as long overdue.
Meanwhile, Joshi, who also coordinated between RSS, BJP and other Sangh Parivar organizations, is now expected to fully concentrate on the coordination work from Delhi.
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