Small episodes’ cannot damage Hindu culture, says RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

With Dadri-like incidents triggering outrage, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said such “small episodes” cannot damage ‘Hindu culture’ and praised the Modi government for ushering in hope and confidence in the country and enhancing India’s standing abroad.

Making his annual ‘Vijayadashami’ speech in Nagpur, Bhagwat said that the primary agenda now is about how to make India a leading nation in the world as ‘expectations have risen’ since Prime Minister Modi’s government has come into power.

Bhagwat hailed Dalit icon B R Ambedkar for making provisions in Constitution to remove social and economic inequality faced by the weaker sections, a reference to the quota system, whose review he had recently suggested that pushed BJP on the backfoot in Bihar polls.

“Small episodes happen. They get exaggerated and presented in a big way… Small incidents keep happening but it does not distort Indian culture, Hindu culture. Since time immemorial, it respects diversity, coordinates among diversities to establish unity… This is Hindutva,” he said.

“Our country has stood as one and will stand as one. The Sangh has been doing the work of keeping the nation one on the basis of Hindutva for the last 90 years,” he said.

Bhagwat added that people are not as apprehensive as before as there is a sense of new hope now. “India is reaching heights that it had not imagined at one point and our image has improved worldwide.”

Stating that India helped Nepal and Maldives in times of disaster as we are expected to lead when there is a crisis, he added, “We are building good relations with other countries and keeping the interest of our country on the forefront.”

“Raavan was a great king, Ram sent Laxman to him to learn how to rule a kingdom. And yet today, we talk about how Ram ruled. Today we want Ram Rajya not Ravan Rajya in India,” he said.

Bhagwat also said that making policy is not enough. It is important to look at the implementation and get feedback. “Society, government and administration need to work in synergy for a continual and long standing change for the nation.

Talking about increasing population, he said, ” We have to look at the population growth; we have to see our capability to feed this population after 50 years. The population needs to be controlled, there should be a single policy for the entire country.

The RSS chief also stressed that the aim should be not just be material growth but spiritual growth.