RSS men confused whether to drop pants, pull up shorts

In a bid to move with the times, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) recently gave an image makeover to their 91-year-old khaki chaddies (shorts) by replacing it with trousers, but swayamsevaks in Mumbai faced a dilemma on Tuesday — whether to attend the traditional shastra puja (weapon worship) in shorts or trousers.

While all the cadres in Goa worshiped the weapons in trousers, hundreds of their Mumbai brethren turned up in their signature khaki chaddies. The confusion was a result of the shakhas disseminating different instructions to its members. The RSS conducts the ritual a few days ahead of Dussehra.

Elated that members in his division sported khaki trousers for the puja, Ashutosh Deodhar, an RSS prachar pramukh of Kalyan division, said, “This year, we had asked all the swayamsevaks to come in pants. Everyone turned up in trousers and looked visibly happy.” He claimed that all the shakhas were informed about the new dress code on Sunday. Mr Soumen Mukherjee, a BJP worker-cum-RSS sevak said that several cadres in his area (Mira Road) turned up in shorts. “We were informed that the new dress code will be effective from Dussehra (Tuesday) so they all came in half pants. However, we will don the new uniform from Dussehra,” he said.

Meanwhile, one of the shakha members viewed the programme as a perfect opportunity to conduct a dress rehearsal. Vipin Menon, an RSS cadre from Dombivali said that many sevaks find it uncomfortable to perform exercises in trousers. “So we thought of wearing pants today to get used to it,” he said.