Ina first in the RSS, mountaineer Santosh Yadav is chief guest at RSS Vijayadashami event

Mountaineer Santosh Yadav was the chief guest at the annual RSS Vijayadashami festival in Nagpur on Wednesday. It's the first time ever in the 97-year history of the RSS that a woman was called as a chief guest at the Vijayadashami festival.

Yadav, 54, has created a world record by being the first woman in the name to climb Mount Everest twice. Originally from Haryana, the accomplished mountaineer was awarded the Padma Shri in 2000.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was founded on the Vijayadashami day in 1925, and on this day every year, the RSS chief delivers a public address, in front of lakhs of swayamsevaks, outlining the vision of RSS for the year.


Addressing swayamsevaks on the customary Vijayadashami celebrations at the Reshimbagh ground, RSS chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat strongly advocated for women empowerment in the country.

Bhagwat pointed out that women, are regarded as "jagat janani (mother of the universe)", but at home they are treated as "slaves". The empowerment of women should begin at home, and they should be given their rightful place in the society, he said.

Bhagwat underlined the importance of women's role in realizing the vision of India once again becoming a 'vishwa guru' (world leader). "If we want to build a vishwa guru Bharat then equal participation of women is also required," he said.

He reminded his audience that it was not the first time that a woman was invited in an RSS function - veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister Amrita Kaur and first Lok Sabha member from Nagpur Anusuabai Kale and others were also invited in RSS programmes.

The gesture by the RSS is an important move to be perceived as gender-inclusive and correct the impression that it only works with men. Critics in the past have called it 'male dominated'.

In the last many years, the RSS has invited personalities such as late president Pranab Mukherjee, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, HCL founder Shiv Nadar, scientist VK Saraswat and Dalit seer Nirmal Baba. Former Chief of the Air Staff Anil Yashwant Tipnis, Jain monk Tarun Sagar and author Narendra Kohli have also been invited by the RSS in the past.