Mark your calendars — and perhaps, your diplomatic protocols. If things go as planned, New Delhi’s diplomatic circuit may find itself sitting front row at an event hosted not by the Ministry of External Affairs, but by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). In what could be a first, officials from various embassies (with the predictable exception of our western neighbour, Pakistan) are being invited to a three-day lecture series by the RSS. The occasion? The Sangh is gearing up to celebrate 100 years of its existence, and it’s kicking things off with lecture marathons in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru. The Delhi edition will open the series at Vigyan Bhawan on August 26, with Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS Sarsanghchalak himself, delivering the inaugural address. “We’re reaching out to various embassies to join us in this lecture series and hope they respond positively,” said a senior RSS functionary, sounding both hopeful and diplomatic.The idea, it seems, is to bring together diplomats, scholars, and the capital’s who’s who to talk about “key issues concerning Bharat” — and perhaps to showcase the Sangh’s intellectual side. And no, this isn’t just another round of speeches and samosas. There’s a clear message brewing: “The Sangh’s chief lecture will give us a new direction which we are following for a powerful and viksit Bharat,” said the functionary, firmly, and the RSS is aiming for soft power points.Poll plunge for IAS close to NitishWith ‘double engine’ governments at the Centre and in Bihar, it hardly took a month to approve the VRS application of 2010 batch IAS officer Dinesh Kumar Rai. He is considered a close confidant of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, and the grapevine in Delhi and Patna suggests that he will contest the upcoming assembly polls on the ruling JD(U) ticket from a constituency in Sahabad district. Incidentally, Rai was scheduled to superannuate from the service in January 2026,but he applied for the VRS on June 13, 2025, and the Union government through the Department of Personnel & Training obliged him with effect from July 15, 2025. At the time of leaving the job, Rai, a Bihar Administrative Service officer promoted to IAS, was serving as Secretary, Revenue and Land Reforms. Earlier, he was also in the CMO.
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