Who is Dattatreya Hosabale, the new RSS general secretary

Dattatreya Hosabale was on Saturday elected as the  Sarkaryavah or General Secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Till now, he was the Sah-Sarakaryavah (Joint General Secretary) of the Sangh and has now replaced Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi, reported PTI.

Born in Sorab in Shivamogga district of Karnataka, Hosabale joined the Sangh in 1968 and was associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), student wing of the RSS.

After joining the RSS, the 66-year-old was sent to ABVP and became a full-time worker there in 1978, according to the Indian Express. In 1992, he became the sangathan mantri of the ABVP.

In 2009, Hosabale became sah-sarkaryawah in the team of Suresh Joshi. Fluent in Kannada, Hindi, English, Tamil, and Sanskrit, he was close to several writers and journalists of Karnataka. He is a post-graduate in English literature from  Bengaluru University.

In ABVP, Hosabale launched several initiatives, two of them being the Youth Development Centre in Guwahati, Assam, and World Organisation of Students and Youth (WOSY).

Hosabale was jailed for over a year under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi’s government.