Arvind Netam Invited To RSS Event As Chief Guest, Creates Flutter In Chhattisgarh Politics
I have been invited to the RSS function as chief guest. I am going to attend the function - Arvind Netam

RAIPUR: In a significant development, veteran tribal leader of Bastar in Chhattisgarh and former Union minister Arvind Netam has been invited to attend an important function of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at its headquarters at Nagpur in Maharashtra on June five, as a chief guest.
The ‘unexpected’ development has created a flutter in the political circle here with some leaders viewing it a 'tribal outreach' exercise by the sangh.
The BJP-ruled states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha now have tribal chief ministers, Vishnu Deo Sai and Mohan Majhi respectively.
Besides, president of India Draupadi Murmu, the former BJP leader of Odisha, is also a tribal.
The former Congress leader Mr. Netam was a minister in the governments of Indira Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao at the Centre.
He quit the party over his differences with the Chhattisgarh Congress leadership in 2023 and floated his new party, Hamar Raj Party, the political wing of the Sarva Adivasi Samaj, a social platform of various tribal groups of Bastar.
His party contested the 2023 Assembly elections in Bastar causing huge damage to the Congress in the tribal belts of Bastar and Surguja.
The ruling BJP had swept the tribal belts of Bastar and Surguja in the last Assembly elections by securing nine out of 12 seats in Bastar and 14 out of 14 seats in Surguja, thus decimating Congress in the region.
Mr. Netam has been invited as chief guest at the ‘Karyakarta Vikas Varg- Dwitiya Samaroh (volunteers training- second convocation) of the RSS, scheduled to be held at the sangh headquarters in Nagpur on June five.
“I have been invited to the RSS function as chief guest. I am going to attend the function”, Mr. Netam told this newspaper on Friday.
Two functions held in RSS headquarters, one, on its foundation day on Dussehra, and the other, convocation of the trained volunteers of the sangh, held every year, are considered important events of the RSS.
Eminent persons of the country are usually invited as chief guests in these two functions.
“It is a rare privilege for Mr. Netam to attend as chief guest of the RSS function”, a senior BJP functionary with RSS background told this newspaper here on Friday, unwilling to be quoted.
Sangh sources called it a ‘tribal outreach’ exercise by the RSS leadership particularly at a time, when Bastar division, comprising seven districts, is currently witnessing tension almost across the region over the issue of religious conversion.
The Hindu bodies have accused the Christian missionaries of converting the tribals in Bastar, leading to tension between them.