Updated: December 19, 2020 7:17:38 pm
RSS senior ideologue and organization’s first spokesperson Madhav Govind Vaidya passed away at the age of 97 (Source: Dr. Manmohan Vaidya / Twitter)
SENIOR ideologue Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) MG Vaidya passed away here on Saturday. He was 97 years old.
“Vaidya died of complications of old age,” said Harshwardhan Mardikar, who treated him for the past five days in hospital.
A former editor of the pro-RSS Marathi daily Tarun Bharat, Vaidya had also served as a spokesperson for RSS and Bouddhik Pramukh (head of the intellectual wing). Vaidya’s son, Manmohan Vaidya, is currently Sahsarkaryawah (Deputy Secretary General) of RSS.
Swayamsevak from childhood, Vaidya, born in 1923, was one of the last surviving RSS ideologues to witness the rise of the RSS since the organization’s inception in 1925. Known for his scholarship, Vaidya had served as a school and university professor . He left his job as a Sanskrit teacher at the Hislop College of Nagpur, run by Christian missionaries, in 1966 to join Tarun Bharat as a member of the editorial team. He later became editor of the newspaper before assuming the position of Managing Director in 1985 and later as editor of Narkesari Prakashan which publishes the newspaper.
RSS leader MG Vaidya. (Express file photo)
Between 1978 and 1984, Vaidya was also a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council as nominated by the governor.
During this time and later, Vaidya also served the RSS in various capacities, including Akhil Bharatiya Bouddhik and Prachar (advertising) Pramukh, as well as the organization’s spokesperson. He was an invited member of the All India RSS working committee until 2008.
During his active years in the RSS, Vaidya was highly respected by all party leaders, who came to him for advice on many issues.
Vaidya, who wrote 20 books, mostly explaining Hindutva ideology, was known for his firm rationalization of the controversial aspects of the ideology with historical and religious references from the scriptures.
His column called “Bhashya” in Tarun Bharat ran for 25 years in a row, regarded as one of the oldest newspaper columns. It was widely speculated that the column had come to an abrupt end after Vaidya wrote an article with an unflattering reference to Modi. But over the past six years, Vaidya had made several comments praising Modi’s leadership and work as prime minister.
During his life, Vaidya had earned the affection of people through ideological division. He had performed “kanyadan” from the Muslim wife of then Congress leader Sunil Deshmukh, now a BJP MLA from Amravati, several years ago. Shrikant Jichkar, a senior congressional leader and former minister of Maharashtra, used to respect him as his guru.
Vaidya had also stoked some controversies with his writing. On November 1, 2016, he had written: “Those who oppose a UCC (Uniform Civil Code) may be given the option of not following it. But in that case, they will have to renounce their right to vote in elections to state assemblies and to Parliament ”.
Had earned angry taunts from Shiv Sena A few years ago when he suggested that Maharashtra be divided into four Marathi speaking states, including the Vidarbha state.
Long before the BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi forked the then state of Jammu and Kashmir, Vaidya had strongly defended it.
Vaidya had sparked controversy during the Vajpayee government when one of his sons was assigned a gas agency to cook in the “Gasoline pump” scam exposed by The Indian Express. His son had later resigned from the offer after Vaidya’s exhortation.
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