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HomeIndiaEducationRSS-backed IAS institute has been quietly grooming ‘nationalist’ civil servants since 1986

RSS-backed IAS institute has been quietly grooming ‘nationalist’ civil servants since 1986

In 2020 civil services exam, Samkalp Foundation has claimed a success rate of 61%. The institute with close ties to RSS claimed similar success in the last few years too.

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New Delhi: At a time when minority institutes like Jamia and Zakat Foundation are in the middle of a row over the rising number of Muslims cracking the Civil Services Examination, an RSS-backed coaching institute, Samkalp Foundation, has claimed a 61 per cent success rate in this year’s exam.

Of the 759 candidates picked by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to enter the civil services this year, as many as 466 had undertaken Samkalp’s Interview Guidance Program (IGP), the foundation claims.

For the 34-year-old institute, grooming as many successful candidates, in whatever way, is hardly an aberration.

According to its website, as many as 649 candidates had enrolled for the IGP, out of the 990 candidates chosen by the UPSC in 2018. In 2017, 2016 and 2015, the numbers were 689, 648 and 670 against the total recruitment of 1,099, 1,078 and 1,236, respectively.

The number of candidates who actually get trained at Samkalp from the preliminary examination stage all the way up to the interview is, however, said to be much lower, according to sources. The exact figures aren’t available on the website, but insiders claim it would be 10 per cent of those who finally qualify.

Over the years, Samkalp has emerged as one of the leading civil services coaching institutes across the country. But unlike other commercial coaching centres, it is non-profit, and is aggressively opposed to media coverage.

“Our approach is very different from other coaching centres… We like to work quietly, and not interact with the media at all. We don’t want publicity. We have not interacted with the media in the last 30 years,” said R.S. Gupta, former Delhi Police commissioner who is a senior office-bearer of the foundation.

“The information related to Samkalp is only meant for the Samkalp family — the students who come here, and their families,” he said, refusing to share any information about the foundation.


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The RSS-BJP connection

For the foundation, which has close links with the RSS, lack of publicity is not a concern, with senior BJP leaders addressing its events each year.

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan and Nagaland Governor and former IPS officer R.N. Ravi are set to be the chief guests for an event scheduled to be held coming Sunday. The two leaders would interact with successful candidates at the programme.

Last year, Home Minister Amit Shah and senior RSS functionary Krishna Gopal had delivered a lecture on national security to retired and serving civil servants at an event organised by Samkalp. Gopal is one of the senior-most ‘mentors’ at the foundation.

The foundation’s photo gallery on its website is filled with photographs of its students with BJP ministers such as Smriti Irani, Prakash Javadekar and Ramesh Pokhriyal.

Yet, when asked what the nature of affiliation between the RSS and Samkalp is, Gupta simply said, “We are an independent organisation under the Societies Registration Act.”

An RSS worker, who did not wish to be identified, said, “You can call Samkalp an RSS-inspired body instead of an RSS-affiliated body.”

Talking about the idea behind the inception of the foundation, the worker said, “In the 1980s, it was felt that there was a need for guidance for the RSS swayamsevaks and volunteers who wish to crack the UPSC…”

RSS workers ThePrint spoke to also said the centre was started as a way to ensure the “bureaucracy is rid of its Leftist bent gradually”.

They said there was a feeling at the time that people from JNU and other such places dominate the bureaucracy, and while a political movement was under way to make the BJP a formidable political force, a need was also felt for an effort to “bring in nationalists in the bureaucracy”.

“It is now you see bureaucrats who are unabashedly nationalistic… This was not the case back in the day,” added the worker quoted above.


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The Samkalp journey

Started in 1986, Samkalp reportedly coached 26 aspirants in its first batch, 14 of whom qualified for the civil services.

By 1999-2000, more than 100 interviewees had reportedly approached Samkalp as its success rate went up to 90 per cent. Over the years, the foundation started centres in different cities like Agra, Ludhiana, Bhopal and Bhilai, apart from its first centres in Delhi.

“Since it is a not-for-profit organisation, there is emphasis on helping the marginalised, to whom coaching is given free of cost,” said Gupta.

While Gupta said there is no screening test for candidates who come to Samkalp, the RSS worker quoted above said a screening test is conducted to ensure the standards of the organisation are maintained, and at the same time, those with “extremist views” do not get enrolled.

While the coaching is absolutely neutral in nature — a politically coloured training could prove counterproductive during the UPSC exam — “a correct understanding” is given to candidates, the RSS worker said.

“For example, Naxalism or Communism is never glorified, importance of removal of Article 370 is taught, importance of the Uniform Civil Code is taught,” the worker said. “This body of knowledge is then used during and beyond the exam.”

While there is a “sharp polarisation” in bureaucracy today, an RSS-backed organisation like Samkalp cannot change the “inclusive nature” of bureaucracy in India, said T.R. Raghunandan, a former IAS officer.

“Given how powerful bureaucracy is, everyone will want their share in power… But as long as the UPSC’s credibility is intact, there is no need to set off alarm bells,” he said.


Also read: Halt Bt brinjal trials, it is against the national interest, RSS affiliate writes to Modi


 

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76 COMMENTS

  1. Down the line ten years the top bureaucracy shall be chaired by Officers groomed by the Hindu Nationalists. The entire system shall be polarised giving way to avoidable franchisee system.
    Our country is the largest democracy of the world. Every Society of the Globe looks at us how Unity in Diversity holds sanctified in India 🇮🇳.
    Good for an Institution to offer courses to students for cracking UPSC exams. But the brainwashing of aspirants is prejudicial and detrimental to the interests of the Nation in the long run.

  2. Thank you .I am 75 going on 76 but never heard of an institution as you mentioned
    I must gind out a f contribute my might.I have seen at close quarters and unlike kangress and communist they are never money hungry.The kangres as O have seen from 1940s is a solutely corrupt and not bothered a out plight of por people.

  3. The only difference between this article and Sudarshan channel’s show is the tone and language. The content, topic, concern raised are same. The sad part is the folks at ThePrint campaigned against that and themselves carried did the same thing.

    • RSS is a nationalist organization,unlike other which want to be part of bureaucracy for their own profit. RSS doesn’t cares about personal profit,it only cares about nation. That’s why people like it.

      • Rss nationalism means manusmruti as constituion and then goes all the rights of dalits … dont u know what NATIONALISN fir rss is? ….

      • Rss nationalism means man usm ruti as constituion and then goes all the rights of dalits … dont u know what NATIONALISN fir rss is? ….

  4. Can you go and preach the same way nationalism to China or Russia or Saudi Arabia? In China you will be in the list of lost and not found, in Russia you will be given a tea bag to die and in Saudi Arabia some unknown organ will be harvested or truncated. In India Sab Kuch Chalta Hai. You can be anti-national and yet it can be fashioned as liberalism. It is populated with middle class and poor suckers who are born to serve the elitist leftist mindset and their political ideology. Left can do all sort of riots in India that they cannot imagine doing in China and Russia the founders of leftist ideology. But Left Leaders Children go abroad to capitalistic countries and live happily ever after follow the law and order in other countries, work in top organizations and enjoy all of the growth. The population that serve them in India will be made to remain subservient to them for generation after generation. Wake Up Indians and ask for your rights under the new liberal elite masters.

    • Mr Subramani: You cite the examples of autocratic, undemocratic and Islamo-fascist states like Russia, China and Saudi Arabia that deny citizens basic freedoms and then lament the fact that India is not like them ! You must be one helluva masochist Mr Subramani !!!!

      In a pre-Modi era, it is precisely this freedom of speech that differentiated India from Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and other undemocratic countries. But the tragedy of India is that educated people like you have been brainwashed by a semi-educated pracharak to throw away that hard-won democratic freedom and make India a Hindu Pakistan. And the pracharak has also convinced you that anybody who is critical of the state of affairs in the pracharak’s kingdom is to be labelled as an anti-national.

      The right to demonstrate and protest is a democratic right. And true democracies do not fear protesters but autocracies, dictatorships and Islamic theocracies like Saudi Arabia, Iran etc. do. A protest is often a signal to the government that comes between elections. Protests take place when the government eschews dialogues with citizens and only goes to citizens for getting votes. Hence calling protests as riots and protesters as anti-nationals is a deeply fascist thing to do Mr Subramani.

      And as regards leftists going abroad to capitalist countries, well, the record is not very different for your saffron friend in the BJP Mr Subramani. The children of Prakash Javadekar, Ravishankar Prasad, Rajnath Singh, Jitendra Singh as well as Ministers such as Nirmala Sitharaman, Jayanth Sinha and many others have studied abroad.

      The BJP is no different from the Congress Mr Subramani. As ex -Bjp Minister Arun Shourie once said:

      BJP = Congress + Cow !

      Meanwhile rather than pontificating:

      “Wake up Indians”

      It is about time that educated South Indians like you decide whether you should let itchy-groined gaurakshaks from UP & Gujarat control your thinking.

  5. Cheap article. Nationalism is not a sin. We need RSS like organizations to teach nationalism so that new IAS officers can work for the nation not for themselves.
    Please don’t compare with minority teach centers which are creating improving livelihoods.

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