Sangh's labour wing opens first public RSS-affiliated office in Kashmir's Pulwama, run by a Muslim in-charge
Sameer Kuchay, the BMS in-charge for Kashmir, says relatives once avoided touching a cup he had used because he was a "Sanghi".
- News18
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the trade union affiliated with the RSS, has opened what News18 describes as Kashmir's first public-facing RSS-affiliated office, in the Barsoo area of Pulwama. The office was inaugurated by B. Sundaram, the BMS national organisation secretary, and is guarded by police, the report said.
It is run by 35-year-old Sameer Kuchay, the BMS in-charge for Kashmir, whose shelves hold books on the RSS by Ratan Sharda alongside the Bhagavad Gītā, the Constitution and works of Shakespeare. "I am a proud Muslim, yes, affiliated with the RSS, affiliated with the BMS," Kuchay told News18, citing the Islamic idea of "hubbul watan", love of one's homeland.
He said he faced social stigma for years, with relatives holding a glass with a cloth after he had used it so as not to touch something used by a "Sanghi". Kuchay said attitudes in the Valley changed after 2019 and that families now want their children to hold pens and books rather than stones.
He said that within the organisation no senior had ever asked whether he was Muslim, and that he had been asked only what he could do to serve society and the nation. Pulwama was for years associated with stone-pelting, encounters and militant attacks.
Kuchay speaks mostly about the welfare of labourers, News18 reported. News18 also carried a video report of the office opening on Friday.
Key data
Office in Barsoo, Pulwama. Kashmir in-charge Sameer Kuchay, 35. Inaugurated by BMS national organisation secretary B. Sundaram.
Why it matters
A public Sangh-family office in Pulwama is a marker of how far the Valley's politics has shifted since 2019, and of the Sangh's outreach to Kashmiri Muslims in its centenary years.
GK: did you know?
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh was founded by Dattopant Thengadi on 23 July 1955 in Bhopal.
