Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat has endorsed the Narendra Modi government, lauding it for lifting the country from “an atmosphere of hopelessness” while at the same time, counselling it to gain feedback from the ground on its functioning.
He was addressing RSS volunteers in Nagpur at a function marking the 90th foundation day of the organisation. His endorsement comes at a critical time for the Modi government as it is facing flak over its handling of the Dadri lynching case and the Haryana incident where two children of a Dalit family were burnt alive two days ago.
Mr. Bhagwat said, “Small incidents keep happening but they are being blown out of proportion,” in what is seen as a reference to these incidents.
Without directly referring to writers returning Sahitya Akademi awards, he cautioned, “intellectuals to keep in mind that their comments do not propagate anarchy.”
“Two years ago, India was witnessing an atmosphere of hopelessness. Nothing positive was in sight. Now worry has been replaced by confidence and this confidence has fuelled hopes,” he said.
“When we talk of culture, some people call it Hindutva. Hindu culture has been preserved in our country for ages. Small incidents keep happening but they are being blown out of proportion. We carry the legacy of our forefathers and some small incidents cannot spoil Indian culture. Our country is united and will stay one,” he said. He asked the public to have patience as “these positive pointers will take some time to become fully effective.”
He also referred to the court order on Santhara, the Jain tradition of ending life through fasting and religious contemplation, and asked the government to work out ways in which change in matters where community feelings were strong were resolved through dialogue and gradual persuasion rather than imposed from above.
He said that people in government must get “credible data, both qualitative and quantitative, from the grassroots level to measure the efficacy of our developmental policies. It is also necessary to hold fruitful dialogues to ensure the participation of all in the nation-building exercise, and speed up the execution of the programme.”
Population policy
In a significant comment on the 2011 Census, of which the part on religious demography was released only this year, Mr. Bhagwat advised a rethink on population.
“We have to ponder whether population is a boon or a bane,” he said. “Facts and figures of the last two census reports and the imbalances that have come to notice as a result are being widely discussed. Our present and future is getting impacted by the same. We need to rise above vote bank politics to formulate a holistic approach, equally applicable to all citizens, towards the population policy. Such a population policy cannot be enforced by our governments or laws, all alone,” he said.
The statement is significant as office-bearers of the RSS will be meeting in Ranchi from October 30 to November 2, to deliberate on the religious demography revealed by the 2011 Census.
NITI Aayog came in for special praise from Mr. Bhagwat, who said that its programmes reflected some of the concerns for the last man in line or the poorest of the poor. He asked for a development model divested of Western ideas, and suited to the Indian ethos of sustainability. He said there should be an overhaul of the education system in the country, and cited the example of Finland for the same.
A large part of his speech, not available in the written text, was a reference to Ravana being a good king and Lord Rama asking his brother Laxmana to learn statecraft from the former. “And yet, when we talk of an ideal ruler we talk of Rama,” he said, making a strong case for a moral leadership to be at the heart of any regime.
