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Since its creation, RSS always respected,protected the Tricolour, says Bhagwat
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat emphasizes respect for the Tricolour, defends the organization's legal status, and advocates for inclusivity across faiths.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday said the organisation respects the Tricolour and sought to dispel the perception that the Sangh prefers its own Bhagwa Dwaj or saffron flag and said that the Sangh does not need to be registered or pay tax as it is a “body of individuals”.
Answering a question on whether the Sangh favours its own flag over the Tricolour, on day two of his public lecture series in Bengaluru, Bhagwat said the Sangh adopted its Bhagwa Dwaj in 1925, when the organisation was set up. “The national flag was designed in 1933. The flag committee had unanimously recommended a traditional bhagwa (saffron) flag. But then (Mahatma) Gandhiji intervened and for some reason, he said three colours, saffron on the top. Since its creation, Sangh has always respected, paid respect to and protected the Tricolour,” he said.
Bhagwat also pointed out that the Communist Party also has its own red flag , and the Congress has a tricolour with charkha. “...The Republican Party has a blue flag. So we have our Bhagwa and we respect our national flag,” he said.
In the wake of the Congress government in Karnataka, seeking a ban on the RSS’s activities and questioning why the organisation is not registered, Bhagwat said, even Hindu Dharma is not registered. He asserted that the Sangh’s legal status is within the Constitution.
“RSS was established in 1925, so do you expect us to have registered with the British government?...After Independence, the government of India did not make registration compulsory…We are categorised as a body of individuals, and we are a recognised organisation,” he said. Taking a pot shot at the Congress he said, “We were banned thrice. So the government has recognised us. If we were not there, who did they ban?”
The RSS chief went on to add that the Income Tax department and the courts have also termed the organisation as a body of individuals and therefore exempt from paying tax.
Bhagwat said there is no bar on persons of any faith or caste from visiting the Shakha or the local units of the Sangh, the ideological mentor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“No Brahmin is allowed in Sangh, no one from any caste is allowed, no Muslim is allowed, no Christian is allowed... People from different denominations, Muslims or Christians, can come to Sangh, keeping their separateness out. When you come to Shakha, you come as a son of Bharat Mata. Muslims and Christians come to shakha, but we don’t take their count, we don’t ask who they are,” he said.
While the critics of the Sangh accuse it of fostering Hindu nationalism and perpetrating discrimination against minorities, the Sangh chief has on several occasions said that the RSS considers people of different faiths who are Indians as “Hindus”.
The Sangh chief said since there is no differentiation on the basis of caste or faith, the organisation does not believe in any outreach specific for communities or religion. To be sure, the Sangh chief has on many occasions interacted with Muslim and Christian clergy and scholars. He said the Sangh does not run or support the idea of schools run for the minorities.
In response to a question on how the Sangh, which is celebrating its centenary, proposes to woo the younger generation, Bhagwat said, to keep up with the times the Sangh follows the approach of reaching out. “We have made many changes in what we do, but the basics remain the same. Any member can come to the Sangh, including transgender, they will not be discriminated against. If they (youth) are interested in AI and social media, we will have to go there and contact them.”
The RSS chief also said the Sangh does not support any political party but works to unite society. “We support Rashtraneeti not Rajneeti…We don’t have special affinity towards one party,” he said, pointing out the organisation seeks to generate support for the “right causes”.
To a separate question on India’s relations with Pakistan can be reset, he said the Sangh prepares the society and society will take care of everything along with security.
“We always have peace with Pakistan. It is Pakistan who doesn’t have peace and as long as Pakistan gets some satisfaction from causing harm to Bharat it will keep on doing it… we don’t breach (peace) from our side but if Pakistan wants to breach that peace it will never be successful, the more it tries, the more it will harm itself.”
On the issue of concentration of wealth among 1% of the country’s population, Bhagwat said it is the fault of the prevalent system, the world tends to mass produce and therefore centralisation of production as well as centralisation of wealth results in this disparity between poor and rich.
“We have to find a new way to show the way to the world and our way is not mass production, our way is production by masses, decentralised production leads to decentralised wealth creation… wealth is not concentrated in the hands of a few individuals,” he said.
