New Delhi: The concept of minority in the Indian Constitution needs to be revisited, said Dattatreya Hosabale, who was re-elected as the sarkaryavah, or General Secretary, of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) during an annual meeting of its apex decision-making body in Nagpur Sunday.
Speaking to the media following the meeting of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS), the RSS leader also defended the Modi government over the electoral bond scheme, calling it an “an experiment”, and said that such experiments are required. He cited the introduction of electronic voting machines (EVMs) as one such instance and said that questions were raised about these too.
“People may have such questions in their mind, but time will tell how beneficial and effective the new system is. So, we should allow such experiments to take place. That is the Sangh’s view,” he said.
During the press conference, Hosabale said, “We need to reconsider (punarvichar) the concept of minority (alpasankhyak) as it exists in the Indian Constitution. Because when we say minority, the country is seen as separate… then who does the country belong to? It’s everyone’s.”
Since its inception in 1925, the RSS has held that no matter what religion one may follow in India, no one should be seen from the prism of “majority” or “minority”.
“In India, Muslims and Christians are generally considered minorities. Since the time of Guru Golwalkar ji, all sarsanghchalaks have tried to have a dialogue with them. Within RSS, too, we have workers from these communities, but we don’t want to display them as show pieces,” he added.
According to Hosabale, RSS considers everyone as Hindus based on their nationality, even though they might be following a different religion. “Even those who don’t consider themselves as Hindus, we have a dialogue with them. When Manmohan Vaidyaji said that minorities are coming closer to the Sangh, he meant Muslims and Christians. Sangh has always protested minority politics. We have had interactions with Christians in Kerala as well as Muslims in Maharashtra,” he said.
On the issue of electoral bonds, he says, “We have not thought much about this issue. In the meetings, too, we have not discussed it because electoral bonds are an experiment. Such experiments happen and the kinds of checks and balances that are required can be done,” he added.
The RSS also highlighted the recent issues of unrest in states like Manipur, Haryana and Rajasthan.
“In Mewat area, where a section of the Muslim community violently attacked the VHP (Vishva Hindu Parishad) yatra and helped spread violence, social tensions prevailed for months and the issue is still not settled. Situation in Manipur has created mistrust between the two sections of the society — Meitei and Kuki — causing deep wounds. It is unfortunate that the border state is undergoing a deep, inexplicable pain and the psychological division of society is dangerous,” said the annual report of the RSS, also released Sunday.
It added that “separatist terrorism” in Punjab has resurfaced months before the Lok Sabha elections under the “pretext of farmers agitation”.
“In Mewat and Manipur, Sangh karyakartas, on the basis of their communication with relevant people, have tried to save the situation, strengthen the society by morale boosting and create an atmosphere of mutual cooperation and coexistence. The separatist terrorism in Punjab has raised its ugly head again. Under the pretext of farmers’ agitation, especially in Punjab, attempts have been restarted to spread anarchy, just two months before the Lok Sabha elections,” it said.
It further alleged, “The forces that are inimical to anything that is Bharat, Hindutva or Sangh, are ever-active in search of newer plans and designs to disrupt or denigrate these three. The frequent rising of [issues] such as ‘Sanatana Dharma is the cause for all ills of our nation’, or the separatist issue of cutting south, or the play of politics in the sensitive matter of caste census — all these are aimed at disunity of the nation through distorted narratives,” it added.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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