'Breaking India brigade' behind Maharashtra violence: RSS

The RSS on Wednesday sought to put the blame of caste violence in Maharashtra on a "breaking India brigade" which, it said, had raised anti-national slogans at the JNU in 2016 and was now trying to divide the Hindu society.

This brigade also wants to divide the country on religious and caste lines and the Sangh will not allow it to succeed, RSS spokesman Manmohan Vaidya told reporters here.

"The breaking India brigade chanted slogans at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2016 that India will be shattered into pieces. It wants to divide the country on religious and caste lines. It wants to divide the Hindu society. The Sangh castigates it," he said.

"The Sangh by uniting all the sections of the society wants to march ahead," he said when asked to comment on Congress president Rahul Gandhi's reported remark that he suspected an RSS hand behind the violence in Pune.

In his book "Breaking India", Indian-American author Rajeev Malhotra has specifically written about this mentality stating that it is aimed at gaining political mileage, Vaidya said.

"That is why this breaking India brigade is indulging in such acts. We won't allow it to succeed. The RSS strongly condemns such mentality and opposes it," he said.

Earlier, a two-day meeting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), chaired by its chief Mohan Bhagwat, began here to discuss the situation prevailing in the country.

"The Sangh convenes two meetings annually where the situation prevalent in the country is discussed," Vaidya said. He clarified that no decision would be taken at the meeting.

Vaidya said that representatives of the BJP, ABVP, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and other constituents of the Sangh Parivar are participating in the conclave.

Claiming that the Sanghs cadre base was growing, he said that more than two lakh youths joined the organisation between January and June 2017.

The number of Sanghs Shakhas (morning classes) has also gone up considerably, he said.