Kailash Satyarthi to be the chief guest at Sangh's Vijayadashami event

Child Rights activist and Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi will be the chief guest at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's Vijayadashami function to be held on October 18.

The Vijayadashami function is one of the most important events in the RSS annual calendar as it is during this address to swayamsevaks that the RSS chief puts forth the organisation's views on various relevant issues and also sets its agenda for the next year.

The RSS chief, during the event, also expresses his views on the present political scenario and the role of the organisation. Last year, he had talked about J&K situation, on matters of cow vigilantism and government policies. He had also praised the Modi government for surgical strikes in 2016.


RSS sources and Satyarthi's team confirmed that the social activist would attend the Vijayadashami event in Nagpur. Satyarthi is the founder of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan that is dedicated towards the eradication of child labour and rehabilitation of the rescued former child workers.

In 2015, in an interview to RSS inspired journal Panchjanya, Satyarthi has said that some of the NGOs in India are "influenced by Naxalism" and this is not good for the internal security if the country.

Last year, as chief guest to its Dusshera function, the RSS had invited Sant Nirmal Das Maharaj, a Dalit Sikh religious leader from Jalandhar. For the Shastra Puja the same year, the organisation had invited a Muslim homeopath, Munawar Yusuf.

In the last few years, the other chief guests at the sangh's Vijayadashami functions include Vijay Kumar Saraswat, former Director General of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Dada JP Waswani, spiritual guru and head of the Sadhu Waswani Mission and former bureaucrat Satya Prakash Rai. EOM