In an incident that has left many surprised, a group of volunteers from the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, an RSS-inspired nationalist women’s organisation, conducted Sri Ram bhajans in the government relief centre on the Shankarling Kalyanamantap premises in Sankeshwar on Saturday.
Minister cancels visit
A local team of samiti volunteers came to the centre on Saturday morning, before the arrival of Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was to interact with people at the centre.
However, the Minister’s visit was cancelled at the last minute.
Chanting for hours
The team members started singing bhajans which went on for hours.
They sang bhajans such as ‘Jai Jai Ram Krishna Hare’ and asked the people to repeat the chant after them.
The relief centre in the district had several non-Hindus.
When asked about the appropriateness of prayers in a government-run relief centre that had people of all religions present, one of the volunteers of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti said that they were “promoting cultural values”.