Citing the Narendra Modi government’s slogan Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (all together, development for all), RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said here on Sunday that India’s distinctive path to development went through dharma.
The term — he emphasised — was not the same as the English word religion, but was the deeper principle that made the Indian civilisation balance material desires and salvation.
At a function in memory of Nanaji Deshmukh, Mr. Bhagwat cited the Jan Sangh leader’s initiatives for rural development at Chitrakoot as an example of an Indian model of development.
“ Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas is the call of dharma. Other nations have not reached beyond maximum good of maximum people, where the maximum is not defined. In India this call of dharma is the parameter for development and we can know that it has been achieved only when we provide welfare to the last man,” Mr. Bhagwat said.
He said both Mahatma Gandhi and Jana Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya emphasised this principle despite coming from different ideologies, as this was the crux of “Bharat”.
He said there needed to be a balance between development and environment, as per dharma.
“As dharma takes everyone and everything alone, it will be a friend of environment too. We will have to seek harmony and set limits to both development and environmental protection,” he said.
