RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in New Delhi, Wednesday. (Express Photo)
Saying that not just Hindus but others too called Ram the “Imam-e-Hind,” RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat Wednesday said that the Ram temple should be built in Ayodhya at the “earliest,” and its construction would remove a major source of tension between Hindus and Muslims. On Kashmir, too, Bhagwat echoed the RSS line that Article 370 and Article 35 A should be scrapped but on the question of uniform civil code, he called for a more pragmatic consensus. Click here to read in Bengali
“(The temple) should have happened by now. The construction of a grand Ram temple will help in ending a major reason for tension between Hindus and Muslims, and if the temple is built in a harmonious way, there will be no more pointing of fingers at Muslims,” he said on the final day of the RSS’s three-day lectures series.
His remarks come when the Supreme Court is hearing the Ayodhya title suit case.
Bhagwat was replying to a range of questions received from the audience over the last two days — from reservations to minority politics, lynching to the relationship between the Sangh and the government.
Saying that “100 per cent best” is hard to find in politics and so people have to elect the “available best,” Bhagwat was critical of the NOTA (None of the Above) option in the EVM.
In a year when five states are going to polls, Bhagwat said: “When we go for NOTA, we reject the available best and then the available worst get the advantage. Although there is a provision of NOTA, I believe that NOTA should not be used and one should go for available best.”
On the uniform civil code, he said: “When it is discussed, it is framed as a Hindu-Muslim issue. But it is not limited to that. (A uniform code) will alter practices of everyone, including of Hindus. Tribals have their own laws. Keeping in mind this diversity, the Constitution allows this…Keeping all these factors, there should be efforts towards a consensus in society for any code…but in its implementation, there cannot be different groups in society.”
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat speaks at the event titled ‘Future of Bharat: An RSS perspective’, in New Delhi. (File)
Three years after his remarks on reservation set off a controversy during the Bihar election, Bhagwat said today that reservation should continue until its beneficiaries feel the need to give it up. Bhagwat said that Sangh supports all reservation provided by the Constitution. “Aarakshan kab tak chalega, iska nirnay jinke liye arakshan diya gaya hai wahi karen. Unko jab lagega iski aavashyakta nahi hai humko, woh dekhenge. Lekin tab tak isko jaari rehna chahiye, (How long should reservation continue should be decided by those who are its beneficiaries. When they feel it is not necessary, they will decide),” Bhagwat said.
Bhagwat added, “1000 varsh ki bimari thik karne ke liye agar 100-150 saal humko neeche jhuk kar rehna padta hai to yeh mehnga sauda nahi hai,” Bhagwat said. RSS chief said, “Reservation is not the problem. But the problem is politics on reservation.”
A year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi during campaign in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls accused then SP government of discrimination on the basis of religion and caste and suggested that if there is a kabristan (graveyard) in a village, then it must have a shamshan ghat (cremation ground) too, RSS chief today said that discussion of shamshan, kabristan and bhagwa atankwad is done when politics is done only for power and not for public welfare through power. “There is need of training. Those who are in politics, they should think on it,” Bhagwat said.
Bhagwat said that violence on any issue including cow was inappropriate and crime and those involve shouldbe punished. But Bhagwat said that people should avoid the double standards on the issue of lyinching and cow trafficking. “Lynching par awaz karte hain…gau taskar humla karte hai…hinsa karte hain us par awaz nahi karte.”
Asked about the changing demographic balance in parts of India, the RSS chief called for a population policy that should be applied first where the problem (of population) exists, “where there are more babies but means to bring them up are limited…If their upbringing is not good, then they will not become good citizens.”
He said that the Sangh supported inter-caste marriages and when asked about the recent SC ruling on Section 377, he said that the LGBTQ community is part of society and should not be isolated. How society “tackles” them with “sensitivity,” needs to be thought, he said.