New Delhi: It is essential for India to ‘carve its own path’ amid the shifting sands of global diplomacy, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said, stressing that the ‘survival of the fittest‘ is the truth of the times and the current ‘paddati’ (system).
“As India works towards being Vishwamitra or Vishwaguru, it will have to think of the ways the world is shifting. And we will have to fix the ‘ulti dhaara’ (unfavourable currents) as quickly as possible, without any delay,” Bhagwat said Saturday, in an address at the Prime Minister’s Museum and Library in Delhi during a book launch.
Bhagwat’s remarks come as the ground of India’s relationship with the United States turns increasingly shaky. US President Donald Trump’s penalising tariffs on India, and the USD 1,00,000 fee on the H-1B visa now, have put Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in a spot.
The fallout of ‘Trumpism’ has been especially costly for India since it refused to back Trump up when the US president insisted that he intervened and prevented the escalation of the recent India-Pakistan conflict. India has neither acknowledged nor accepted his role.
“The top-most predator on the food chain eats everyone else up. It is a crime to be at the bottom of the food chain,” the sarsanghchalak said.
Recalling an encounter with an American citizen two years ago, Mohan Bhagwat said that he had been advocating for ‘putting American interests first’ all the time, adding that that reeked of hypocrisy.
“A gentleman from America had come to meet me two to three years ago, when Trump was not in power. He said India and the US can be great friends in terms of trade, war against terrorism, economy, etc., provided American interests come first,” the RSS chief recounted.
“I said it does not work that way. Everyone has an interest, every country has an interest, and it works towards it.”
Throughout his speech, Mohan Bhagwat focused on saying that in the current global order, focused on the ‘economy’,India has to be more assertive. But he cautioned against conflict.
“If every confrontation led to a battle or war, then since 1947, all we would have done is fight,” the RSS chief said, indicating a need for India to calm the waters.
Book launch
‘Everything all at Once: India and the six simultaneous global transitions’, written by Rajiv Kumar and Ishan Joshi, was launched by Mohan Bhagwat, the chief guest at the Saturday event. The book focuses on geopolitical, geoeconomic, and technological transitions, among others, which have been changing the world.
The writers urge India to take charge and shape world policy to face urgent challenges, ranging from a looming climate catastrophe by adopting frontier technologies such as AI to India’s advantage, and also navigating autonomy in an economic period where the United States’ influence is waning and China’s is rising.
“We need an intellectual churning in this country to come up with our own model of development. If we do it, we will become an example for the rest of the world,” Rajiv Kumar, one of the authors, said.
“The biggest thing is we have to accept that whenever India progressed, it happened with private companies. We have to change the nature of the state and governance, from regulatory governance to promotional governance, at all levels,” Kumar added.
At the book launch, Rupa Publication’s Managing Director Kapish Mehra, philanthropist Ashish Dhawan, Professor Mahendra Dev, who is the Chairman of Economic Advisory Group to the Prime Minister, and CEO of Hero MotoCorp Sunil Munjal were also present.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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@Vivek
What else brought India out of fragile five to fastest growing major reforms ? It is the current dispensation in power which very strategically rolled out one reform after another – from universal financial inclusion to improving the health of balance sheet of PSBs. Your comment reminds me of someone who said that India was bound to grow at this rate as if the demographic dividend wasnt present during the 2000s. India has been blessed with demographic dividend since the early 80s !
India in2014 had great appetite for reforms. But Modi is too afraid to loose power ; eventually; sycophants took over.
Its a shame that he couldn’t capitalize on demographic dividends.