Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh president Mohan Bhagwat came to the defense of the organization’s employee, Dattatreya Hosabale, who called for keeping the doors of dialogue open with Pakistan. Bhagwat explained that Hosabale’s statements referred to the Pakistani people.
The RSS chief also said that the organization is in line with the Centre’s policy when it comes to Pakistan and said that it does not have an independent foreign policy.
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What did Dattatreya Hosabale say?
In an interview with news agency PTI in May, Hosabale was asked how India dealt with Pakistan and its sponsorship of terrorism. In response, the doors of dialogue should remain open while maintaining India’s security.
“The security and self-respect of any country must be protected, and the current government must take care of it. But at the same time, we do not need to close the doors. We must always be ready to engage them in dialogue,” the news agency quoted him as saying.
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Illustrated by Mohan Bhagwat
Defending Hosabale’s remarks, Bhagwat said on Saturday that there are many people in Pakistan who believe that Partition should not have happened. He also said that many journalists there were “praising” the work being done by the RSS.
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“But there are many people in Pakistan who believe that the partition of Bharat was a mistake, and many journalists there praise the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its work. There is a clear undercurrent of people who are anti-Pakistan and against the two-state theory and say that living together was better,” he added.
Bhagwat added that in the future, if India defeats Pakistan irreparably, it will have to take its people into the Bharat fold or allow them to live there in peace, and in both these scenarios, “the doors of dialogue must remain open.”
He added: “We are not like Hitler. This is not our nature or our way. So we need to keep some doors open. We must defeat injustice and tyranny, but we must also preserve what is good.”
However, the RSS chief also made it clear that the organization does not have an independent policy when it comes to external affairs and stands with the Centre’s position.
