29 August,2016 07:00 PM IST | | mid-day online correspondent
To keep up with changing times, the RSS is finally taking off its famous khaki shorts, its trademark attire for 91 years, and replacing it with brown trousers. And Twitterati 'blame' 'sanskari' Mahesh Sharma for it
RSS takes off its khaki knickers... What? To put on full pants... Oh!
It's finally happening. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is taking off it's famous, or was it infamous khaki chaddis. What?
And putting on full trousers in their place. Phew!
Over nine decades after it was founded by Kesava Rao Baliram Hedgewar in 1925, the RSS will finally drop its khaki shorts and change into a new uniform comprising full-length dark khaki pants from Dassehra Day this year.
ALSO READ: RSS boys want chaddis dropped
A consignment of the first lot of 10,000 sets of the new 'ganvesh' (uniform) - comprising the regular white shirt, black cap, a black leather belt, a pair of dark brown socks and black shoes, the trademark bamboo cane - and now, including full-length dark khaki trousers - went on sale at a shop near the RSS headquarters in Reshimbaug in Nagpur on Monday.
Knickers no more: Nitin Gadkari and Devendra Fadnavis during Vijay Dashmi function at RSS headquarters in Nagpur. File Pic/PTI
According to news reports, around 7 lakh trousers are to be provided in first phase to RSS cadre.
The RSS will formally adopt the new uniform from Vijayadashami, the organisation's foundation day that falls on October 11 this year.
"Around 2 lakh full pants have already reached offices of organisation in various states that is being provided to all its members," head of the RSS' communications department Manmohan Vaidya told a news agency.
The trousers will replace the knee-length khaki shorts that members of the RSS, the BJP's ideological mentor, have worn for the last 91 years.
The decision to switch to the brown trousers was taken in March this year at the annual meeting of the organisation's highest decision-making body, the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha held in Nagaur, Rajasthan, presided over by Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat.
However, the actual change comes after nearly a decade of debates, nationwide feedback from the grassroots activists and internal surveys.
Earlier, changing with the times, the RSS, way back in 1940, had changed from a khaki shirt to a white shirt, and in 2010 from the coarse canvas belts to thick leather belts.
The latest change has evoked mixed reactions from among the veteran RSS activists and the new generation -- a young activist proudly posed in the new outfit for media persons at the outlet.
The new full pants have been stitched in different parts of the country, but the raw material is said to have been bought from the textile town of Bhilwara in Rajasthan.
The new full pants - costing around Rs 250 - have been tailored by an RSS regular stylist, in Akola, Rajasthan, and his 40-strong team plans to send around 50,000 pieces to Nagpur by Dassehra (Vijayadashmi) to be celebrated in October this year.
Thousands of RSS activists, who will gather for the annual Vijayadashmi Rally in Nagpur, will be seen formally attired in the new uniform first time on October 11 in the presence of Bhagwat.
HERE'S HOW TWITTER REACTED:
(With Agency Inputs)
