Thiruvananthapuram: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday stressed the importance of strength, saying that if you are strong, “no one will say anything even if you seize Venezuela”—a veiled reference to the US action against the South American nation under former president Nicolas Maduro.
Bhagwat remarked while speaking at an event here as part of the RSS centenary celebrations.
The RSS chief said Hindus had to become strong to protect themselves, as the world heard only those who had strength.
“The world will hear you only if you are strong. It will not hear you if you are true. If you are strong, no one will object even if you tread the path of falsehood. Even if you go and seize Venezuela, nobody will say anything because you are strong. That is how the world is,” he said.
He said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was working on making Hindu society strong, bringing it together and binding it in a sense of belonging, “as we have always been, are and shall be one nation—and that is a Hindu nation.”
At the same time, he clarified that when the Sangh said ‘Hindu’, it did not mean a way of worship alone.
“There are many ways of worship that come under the banner of Hindu. Hindu is our ‘sanskritikpehchaan’, which, according to my translation, means ‘civilizational identity’,” he said.
Bhagwat said that when swayamsevaks met Muslims and Christians, “we tell them that you are also Hindus by way of traditions, ancestors, and the cultural influence you carry with you everywhere”, but they disagreed.
He said the RSS was the largest voluntary organisation in the world but also “the most misunderstood.”
The RSS chief said the organisation might appear to outsiders as a paramilitary body—owing to the route marches conducted by swayamsevaks in uniform—or as an all-India gymnasium, given its promotion of Bharatiya games and martial arts.
“But it is not all that. It is difficult to understand the Sangh from the outside,” he added.
“The best way to understand the RSS is to engage with it and experience it from within. However, to do so, one must first be assured that it is safe to test and understand it. A lecture or a book can provide at least that much understanding of the Sangh,” Bhagwat said.
He said the RSS was neither a reaction to any particular situation nor opposed to any section of society or any political party.
In his over an hour-long speech, Bhagwat referred to how the RSS came to be and said the thought behind the movement was ‘Hindutva’—not something new or devised by anybody, but a “tradition.”
“The Supreme Court also says it is a living tradition of Bharat,” he claimed.
Bhagwat further said the RSS was not in politics, though many of its members were.
He also said that neither Ram Janmabhoomi nor Article 370 were political issues, describing them as “questions of unity and integrity of the country.”
The RSS chief also spoke about the recent “upsurge in Hindutva” and said it was not due to the Sangh alone but a result of the work being done by many people.
He also said the RSS did not see anyone as an opponent.
“Those opposing us, we see them as the swayamsevaks of the future. We aim to include everyone and organise the society. The fortune of a nation cannot be altered by a group. It has to be done by the society of the nation,” he said.
He also said diversities were temporary and an expression of the underlying unity of existence.
Bhagwat urged everyone not to go by propaganda, narratives, or hearsay about the RSS—or even about the organisation as he himself described it.
“Come and see for yourself and experience it. It is an informal organisation. You can join it anytime and leave whenever you want to,” he said.
