R Krishna Das
Raipur, October 15
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghchalak Dr Mohan Bhagwat on Friday cautioned India must be “prepared for all possibilities” as it geared up to take part in talks with the Taliban hosted by Russia next week.
Dr Bhagwat also called for freeing Hindu temples from state control and alerted the government about maintaining extra vigil on the borders.
In his Vijaydashmi address, Dr Bhagwat said India should be cautious about the Taliban. “The Taliban may have changed, but have Pakistan and China changed?” he asked. “We need to be careful about all our borders,” the Sarsanghchalak said.
The customary speech on the occasion that also marks the foundation day of RSS, world’s largest voluntary organisation, also addressed issues ranging from population control to civilian killings in Jammu and Kashmir and from increased consumption of OTT platforms to the need to regulate Bitcoin.
Bhagwat said people in Jammu and Kashmir were getting the benefits of doing away with Article 370. “Terrorists want to re-establish fear in the minds of people for their survival, that is why they are doing targeted killings,” he said. “We must give a befitting reply to the terrorists,” he added.
Sarsanghchalak came out in support of the Centre’s decision to remember the pains of partition so that “repetition of that painful history will not happen.” He recalled sacrifices made by many freedom fighters and stated that while the country got its independence, the pain of partition hasn’t gone yet. “We still feel the pain of partition. We should know the truth of the history of partition. To reclaim the integrity and unity of the country, the new generation should learn about this history,” Dr Bhagwat said.
He added that temples of South India were fully controlled by the state governments and the operating rights of Hindu temples be handed over to the Hindu devotees. He also said that the wealth of the Hindu temples should be utilised for the worship of the deities and the welfare of the Hindu community only.
“The injustices such as the exclusive appropriation of Hindu religious sites for decades and centuries, handing over of the operations to the non-devotees/irreligious, unethical heretics despite the State being ‘secular’ must be expunged. It is also necessary and only reasonable that the operating rights of Hindu temples be handed over to the Hindu devotees and the wealth of the Hindu temples is utilised for the worship of the deities and the welfare of the Hindu community only. Alongside this thought, it is also necessary to devise a scheme to once again make temples the epicentre of our social-cultural life while ensuring appropriate management and operation of the temples based on the strength of the Hindu society,” the Sarsanghchalak said.
Population policy should be considered once again, the policy should be made for the next 50 years, and it should be implemented equally, population imbalance has become a problem. “Our journey from ‘Swadheehnta to Swatantrata’ is as yet far from complete. There’re elements in the world for whom India’s progress and its rise to a respected position are detrimental to their vested interests,” he added.
“We should shun our small egos and embrace everyone,” Dr Bhagwat said in a message to the Hindus. “As Hindus we must all try to remain united and use our power to remain together,” Dr Bhagwat said. “Everyone should understand that in this land we are all Hindus,” he reiterated.
