On the third and final day of his three-day lecture series in Delhi, RSS Sarasanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat said that the Sangh does not take decisions for its affiliated organisations like the BJP, adding, in an apparent reference to the delay in the election of the next BJP president to replace J P Nadda, “Hum tay karte toh itna samay lagta kya (Were it up to us to decide, would it have taken so long)?… We don’t do it. Take your time.”
Fielding questions over a range of issues submitted by attendees, Bhagwat said: “It is absolutely wrong that the Sangh decides everything (for the BJP). I run shakhas; that is my expertise. They are running the State, that is their expertise. We can advise, but the decision in that field is theirs.”
Bhagwat also asserted that the RSS has no role in selection of a new chief of the BJP and denied differences between the RSS and BJP government, both at the Centre and in states ruled by the party. “It’s completely wrong,“ the RSS chief said, responding to a question on the Sangh calling shots in the BJP, including selection of its president. “We don’t decide. If we were deciding, would it have taken so long. We don’t do (decide). We don’t have to. Take your time. We don’t have to say anything.”
He also said: “I never said I will retire or someone else should retire at 75 years.”
Bhagwat said demographic changes were a concern, saying these had led to Partition, referring to Timor as well. While the DNA of Indians was the same as that of their neighbours, the RSS chief said, this did not mean anyone could come in without permission. India’s resources should first be for Indian citizens, including “Indian Muslims”, he said.
All Indians are Hindus, Bhagwat repeated, with “Bharatiya”, “Indic”, “Hindavi” etc acceptable synonyms for it. The propaganda that change of religion means rupture from society should be rejected, he said. “Muslims and Christians will come with us the day the propaganda stops that they are different because of religion. They are Muslim or Christian, but not Arabs, Turks or Europeans. This is important,” he said.
Seeking to allay apprehensions of the Muslim community regarding the BJP and RSS, he said Islam has thrived in India since it arrived, and would continue to exist in the country. It was false propaganda that Sangh activists oppressed Muslims, Bhagwat said, adding that people should remember how they offered service when Muslim passengers lost their lives in the Charkhi Dadri air crash.
Bhagwat also urged Indians to have at least three children, saying societies with fertility rates below this gradually perish. He said doctors had told him such families are “healthier”, with children who learn to adjust better. Three was an ideal number, Bhagwat said, as more would be a stretch on the country’s limited resources.
He obliquely accepted that Muslim decadal rates of growth were also declining, saying that the numbers were falling more for Hindus as their rates of growth of population were earlier lower, “but for others too it is going down”.
On reservations, over which the RSS has been in a controversy before, Bhagwat said the Sangh supports continuing quotas till the day the beneficiaries say they don’t need them. “There are those who say I did not do anything, why should I pay a price for the past? That is one argument. I say, if our own people faced so much for a thousand years, let us face a bit for 200 years. The constitutional reservations will stay — that has been our position — till the day the beneficiaries say there is no need for them any longer,” he asserted, adding: “We want leadership of the weaker communities to come up. That will help find a solution.”
If texts like the Manu Smriti had derogatory caste references, these need not be accepted, Bhagwat added, saying many dharmacharyas too disagreed with these references. “Also, what is written in some texts did not happen on the ground. And it is not that we have one text. In our whole history, it never happened that the country functioned on the basis of Manu Smriti alone.”
On the controversy regarding language, Bhagwat said all Indian languages are national languages, but there should be a language of communication in the country that should not be a foreign language. “Let people decide which it should be. There is no point in having differences on this. If you want, learn many languages.”
Bhagwat has said in the past too that he does not have a problem with people learning English, and that he himself read Charles Dickens and other writers in his younger days. However, he said, this should not come at the cost of ignoring Indian languages.
On renaming of places, Bhagwat said one should not name places after “invaders”. “Names of places should be as per local sentiments. The names of invaders should not be there. I have not said Muslims, but invaders. There should in fact be places named after Shaheed Abdul Hamid, Dr Abdul Kalam… or Ashfaquallah Khan.”
There was nothing anti-Muslim about changing names, he said. “Except for invaders, all other names are welcome.”
Bhagwat asserted that Bharat remained “Akhand (One)”, adding that those who partitioned the country have not done well spiritually and economically.
Regarding the Bills brought by the Modi government to remove from office any minister, including chief ministers and the Prime Minister, detained for 30 days or more for a serious offence, Bhagwat said Parliament was the appropriate body looking into the question, and that leadership should in principle be transparent.
Regarding misgivings about the Sangh in the minds of Opposition leaders, he said several of them had seen its reality and changed their minds, mentioning Jaya Prakash Narayan, Maulana Azad and Pranab Mukherjee.
