Veteran RSS leader Balraj Madhok passes away

New Delhi: Rashtriya Swamyasewak Sangh (RSS) activist and former president of Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) Balraj Madhok, aged 96, died here on Monday.

Madhok, who was ill for last few days died here around 9.00 a.m. at his residence in central Delhi’s New Rajendra Nagar area, an RSS official told IANS.

Madhok was born on February 25, 1920, in Skardu region of Jammu and Kashmir (now in Pakistan’s Gilgit Balitistan territory).

He founded the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in 1951.

Madhok was also elected to the Lok Sabha in 1961.

Union Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Harsh Vardhan tweeted, “Balraj Madhok left for heavenly abode today-India loses a great intellectual, thinker and a social reformer. May his soul rest in peace.”

His body would be cremated at Satya Nagar cremetorium at 5.00 p.m., a RSS official said.