New Delhi: The Sangh does not take credit for the work its swayamsevaks do in other affiliate organisations, but is stuck with the discredit because ultimately they belong to the sangathan, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sarsanghachalak (chief mentor) Mohan Bhagwat said Tuesday.
Addressing a three-day lecture series to mark 100 years of the RSS, Bhagwat said Sangh’s swayamsevaks are working in several fields on the basis of values imparted by the organisation. However, the work they do is independent of the Sangh, and the Sangh does not control it directly or remotely, he said. Bhagwat added that the Sangh’s view has always been that everything cannot be left to politicians and the government.
His statement comes at a time of intense political speculation regarding the Sangh’s relationship with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The stalemate over the election of the next BJP president is also seen as a result of their seemingly strained relations.
In his Independence Day speech this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi showered praise on the RSS, a move that was seen as a big reconciliatory gesture from the former Sangh pracharak towards his ideological mentor.
“In several fields, our swayamsevaks are working. They are working on the basis of the values they have received from the Sangh in their respective fields. The work they do is independent, different and in their interest,” Bhagwat said Tuesday.
“They get its credit, the Sangh doesn’t. But the Sangh has to share the discredit because maal humare yahan se gaya hai (the swayamsevak has gone from the Sangh),” he added cryptically. “Credit is theirs. Sangh doesn’t control them directly or remotely.”
However, the relationship that swayamsevaks have with the Sangh is eternal, he added. It is because of this unbreakable bond that they meet and discuss. “If they ask, we tell them. If something occurs to us, we tell them. If they ask for help, we help.”
Adding, “However, we don’t pressure them to follow our advice. They understand what we say, and then depending on their understanding, they take a call.”
“Because they are working in their fields. It is their experience, their expertise. Not that it’s not ours, but they are the ones who have to act, so they must have the independence to do what they have to do, and they have that independence,” Bhagwat said.
Gradually, he added, the swayamsevaks become independent, competent and self-sufficient, and don’t need the Sangh’s help. “Vichar sanskar aur achar theek rahe. Itni hum swayamsevak ki chinta karte hai, sangathan ki chinta woh karte hain.”
(Thoughts, culture and behavior should be okay. That much we worry about swayamsevaks, they worry about the organisation.)
Last year ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, BJP president J.P. Nadda kicked up a political storm when he said that the BJP needed the RSS earlier but has now become saksham (capable) and can run its own affairs. The RSS on its part had kept a distance from the Lok Sabha election campaign, and not helped BJP candidates the way it usually does.
It is widely believed that the party’s reduced tally was, among other factors, a result of reduced grassroots support from RSS cadre. While in subsequent Assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra, the Sangh is known to have extended its support to the BJP, rumblings of tension between the two organisations have persisted.
“Even when there is a difference of opinion, there shouldn’t be ill-will,” Mohan Bhagwat said Tuesday. Adding, “Saath mein le kar sabko chale, yeh swabhav sabka rahe (taking everyone together, that should be their temperament). This is what a sangathan is. This is our expectation from them (the swayamsevaks).”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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