Hindu group behind Modi’s rise as elections near

NEW DELHI: A Hindu nationalist group behind the rise of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is opening up to critics and supporters through a first-of-its-kind outreach programme in New Delhi, preparing the ground for his re-election bid next year.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the fountainhead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that believes in a Hindu-first ideology, provided thousands of campaigners for Modi’s landslide victory in 2014, and could help energise its cadre to fend off rising criticism of the government.

A general election is due by May. A three-day lecture session the RSS started on Monday in the capital - rare for a mainly male group that typically broadcasts its views from its headquarters in the western city of Nagpur - is also being seen as an attempt to mainstream the movement that Modi joined in his youth. “We want to connect with a larger section of society, those who want to understand us, those who want to know us,” Manmohan Vaidya, one of several RSS general secretaries, told Reuters. “We are experiencing a growing curiosity among a large section of society.”