New Delhi: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sunday backed the Modi government’s reaction to the West Asia conflict, with its general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale saying New Delhi was acting in “the supreme interest of the nation”.
Hosabale was addressing a press conference following a meeting of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS), the RSS’s highest decision-making and policy-making body.
His statement comes at a time when the Opposition has criticised the government for its response to the West Asia conflict and stepped up pressure for a parliamentary debate on the issue.
Hosabale Sunday declined to analyse the conflict directly but expressed full confidence in the government’s diplomatic course.
“I will not analyse the reasons for the war etc., because the Sangh does not comment on such matters of international diplomacy,” he said.
“We believe that the Government of Bharat is making every possible effort to do what is beneficial from Bharat’s point of view. The people sitting in the government have to maintain relations with all the countries of the world—communication, commerce, security etc—so, whatever is in Bharat’s interest, in the supreme interest of the nation, they are doing that. From that perspective, the RSS also has faith that what they are doing is right,” he said.
The Opposition, led by the Congress, has criticised the government for its silence over the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, by US and Israeli forces. It has also demanded a parliamentary discussion on the West Asia war and its impact on India, including on energy security and reports of natural gas scarcity.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh had said in a post on Twitter earlier this week: “The Opposition is demanding a discussion in both Houses of Parliament on the situation in West Asia and its impacts on India. But the Modi Govt is adamantly refusing to allow such a debate. It is clearly afraid.”
Asked about protests in parts of the country after Khamenei’s death, Hosabale said expressions of grief must remain peaceful, invoking what he described as a core Indian tradition. “If people want to mourn, they should… it should be done peacefully. It is India’s tradition that after death, no one is an enemy, and RSS has always said that if someone expresses sorrow after death, it should be done peacefully without promoting unrest,” he said.
On the broader conflict, Hosabale invoked the concept of ‘vishwa kutumb’—the world as one family—as the basis for commitment to global peace.
“What we want is that there should be peace in the world. In Hyderabad (where swayamsevaks from across the world had come) when people from 71 countries had come, we told them: you live in that country and eat the food of that country, so you should also work for the welfare of that country… It is not that you are only with Bharat. You also have a duty towards the society there, and that duty should be fulfilled. That is why world peace is our outlook,” he said.
He added that wars arise for many reasons and the RSS wished for them to end as soon as possible so that ordinary people could return to normal lives.
On organisational matters, Hosabale said the RSS had recently coordinated nationwide programmes marking the Shahidi Diwas of the Ninth Sikh Guru and events commemorating 150 years of the song ‘Vande Mataram’. Many were not formally listed under the Sangh’s name, but volunteers had coordinated and participated alongside local organisations, he said.
“A swayamsevak of the Sangh does not think only in terms of one state—for example, Tamil Nadu or any other state—but considers the country as a whole…” he said, adding that the RSS had made concerted efforts in recent years to expand the number of shakhas.
On the relationship between the RSS and the BJP, he said: “We have many ideologies for the country. These ideologies have been adopted only by BJP. Other parties have kept the doors closed for RSS. That is why many people of Sangh entered politics and are promoting ideas in the interest of the country.”