Anybody living in India is a Hindu: RSS Chief

December 17, 2017 113 Views No Comment

Anybody living in India is a Hindu, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Sunday, asserting that the meaning of Hindutva is to unite all communities.

Hindutva is different from Hinduism, he told a public function at the Swami Vivekananda Maidan in the heart of Tripura’s capital.

“The Muslims in India are also Hindus,” the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghchalak said.

Bhagwat said, “We have no enmity with anyone. We want welfare of all. To unite all is the meaning of Hindutva.”

Maintaining that India is a land of Hindus, he said “tortured” Hindus from across the world come to the country and get shelter.

The RSS supremo said, “Hindus believe in truth, but the world respects strength. There is strength in organisation. Being organised is the natural law.”

Referring to the Partition, he said parts of India got separated in 1947, leading to the weakening of the spirit of Hindutva and a decline of the “Hindu Samaj”.

“India was united for so long. There was unity among the Hindus,” Bhagwat said.

Highlighting the rich heritage of the country, he said, “A perturbed and confused world is looking at India for a new world order that can accommodate the materialist as well as the idealist.”

He urged the Hindus to get organised and trained at RSS “shakhas” (daily meetings), saying these were the only places where one could prepare for nation-building and self-development.

The “sanatan dharma” wants to work together with everybody on board, Bhagwat said.

The RSS chief, who arrived in Agartala on Friday, will hold meetings with Sangh members and activists from across the seven northeastern states to strengthen the party in the region with an eye on the upcoming assembly elections, party sources said.

Political circles termed the RSS chief’s five-day visit to Left-ruled Tripura as “significant”, coming ahead of the polls scheduled early next year.

RSS spokesperson Manoranjan Pradhan said that Bhagwat, during his stay in Tripura, would meet Sangh functionaries, members and activists from the seven northeastern states and address a public rally here on Sunday.

“He would review the organisational programmes and works of the Sangh and give advice to further strengthen it in the northeastern region”, Pradhan said.

He said that RSS organisers in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura would be present at the ‘Barshik Samiksha Baithak’ (annual review meeting) and discuss how the organisation can be further strengthened.

Assembly elections to the three northeastern states — Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura — with 60 seats each — are expected to be held simultaneously in February. The BJP is making a serious bid to increase its footprint in the north-east. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur have BJP governments.

Source: PTI