Saffronites unhappy with power politics

Free Thinker *

Free Thinker : Namaskar Pracharak ji, let me start with my quest on ‘saffron’ and what is the idea behind ‘saffron’ ?
Pracharak : If you go by the dictionary meaning of ‘saffron’ – it is the deep orange aromatic pungent dried stigmas of a purple-flowered crocus (crocus sativus) used to color and flavour foods and formerly as a dyestuff and in medicine; but I am not talking about the dyers and food lovers but certainly I am talking about an idea or an ideology which is identified with saffron, the sacred color .

Free Thinker : What is that idea or ideology ?
Pracharak : It is much broader than a mere political ideology ; the idea encompasses the entire domain of society; Saffron never aims at establishing an organized group within the society rather its mission has been of organizing the entire society. It functions in various spheres of life. Politics is one sphere but not the only one. There are other spheres like education, agriculture, labour, industry etc. At the same time there are many constituents of the society – women, children, students, teachers, artisans, doctors, lawyers , traders and so on. Organizing the entire society means organizing all these spheres along with the different constituents.

Free Thinker : Pracharak ji, but general public identify saffron ideology as a political ideology, what is your take on it ?
Pracharak : Listen carefully, I told you politics is only a sphere of life, we work in every field – culture, religion, politics, agriculture, industry, labour so on and so forth. People see mainly politics because it is linked with power and authority. But the Saffron ideology is much bigger and quite encompassing.

Free Thinker : That means Saffron is not merely linked with political activity but an amalgam of manifold activities.
Pracharak : Yes , of course, we have many facets, we are involved with almost all the activities for positive changes, refinement and unification, unifying the human endeavour.

Free Thinker : Do you have parties, organizations, associations, unions etc to render the benevolent activities in all areas of human activity ?
Pracharak : Yes Yes, you will find the presence of saffron activists in every walks of life in the country; number of people who are directly involved with the welfare of the people is increasing by leaps and bounds perhaps because we are in power; as a matter of fact political power is merely collateral to our activities.

Free Thinker : What are the areas of work generally taken up by the Saffron Parivar?
Pracharak : We are there almost everywhere; but our fundamental idea is to render selfless service to the nation and to the people; in a way we are trying to organize the entire society; for politics we have BJP, for Dharma we have VHP, for education we have Vidya Bharati, for labour Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, for farmers there is Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, for women Rastra Sevika Samiti, for tribals Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, for lawyers we have Adhivakta Parisad , for doctors we have National Medicos Organization (NMO) and Arogya Bharati. The ideal of nation first binds us all.

Free Thinker: Pracharak ji but right now in our State something like ME first is going on, and that is breaking the unity in the political sphere of Saffron.
Pracharak : At this juncture the State has many problems like drought like situation, scarcity of drinking water, costlier rice, financial crunch , employees strikes etc; leaders are supposed to handle these issues ; instead they indulge in power game; this will antagonize the people.

Free Thinker : Sir, I am really impressed by your knowledge and information; your info about our state is very accurate; from where do you get these information ?
Pracharak : Basically we are wanderers, we also get the info from Pranth -Pracharaks; whether we are in power or out of power we continue to perform our duties; in the last 90 years of our service we were hardly in power ; but we never stopped our work; even if we are out of power we shall continue to serve the people and to serve the nation; our motto is nation first.

Free Thinker : But our local leaders have been doing power politics and perhaps forgotten their main responsibilities of serving the people; again most of them are in Dili to represent their cases.
Pracharak : If they ignore the people and simply running around for personal gains and positions, people will not forgive them; they should learn to sacrifice and sacrifice everything including the their coveted political positions if they want to remain relevant within the Saffron Parivar and also in the society. Now we may compel them in two and a half years to go back to the people with folded hands.