Mohan Bhagwat’s interview: Days after crucial meeting, ahead of LS polls, reading the RSS chief’s message

His declaration comes in the wake of several tweaks by the Sangh in recent years, from changing its uniform to its functioning style, to hosting people from across a wide strata, seen as signs of a new openness. Bhagwat’s statement also comes at a time when the BJP has begun the countdown for the next Lok Sabha polls.

Suggesting that Hindus have been “at war for over 1,000 years” against various forces, the RSS chief said: “It is but natural for those at war to be aggressive.” Bhagwat went on to advise Muslims, saying: “There is no harm to Muslims living today in Bharat… Islam has nothing to fear. But at the same time, Muslims must abandon their boisterous rhetoric of supremacy

He added: “We should not change our strategy because others have challenged us. We fight a battle according to our own plan.”

In September 2018, during a lecture series at Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi, Bhagwat struck a more conciliatory tone, saying: “Hindu Rashtra does not mean it has no place for Muslims. The day it is said that Muslims are unwanted here, the concept of Hindutva will cease to exist.”

In June last year, while addressing the concluding session of a third-year camp in Nagpur, he said there was no need to “look for a Shivling in every mosque (har masjid mein Shivling kyun dekhna)”. It was seen as a major statement coming at a time when disputes were being stirred over several Muslim shrines.

In November, following a series of interactions with Muslim personalities and imams, Bhagwat said at an event in Ambikapur: “Those who consider India their matrubhoomi (motherland), want to live with the culture of unity in diversity and make efforts in this direction, irrespective of whatever religion, culture, language and food habit and ideology they follow, are Hindus.”

Bhagwat’s interview to the Sangh -affiliated publications came out three days after a meeting of top RSS leaders in Goa, where several issues were reportedly discussed, including the resentment of several hardcore cadres towards the functioning of BJP governments, and the influx into the organisation of people from different walks of life, particularly since the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014.

Interestingly, before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as well, a meeting of top leaders of the RSS and its affiliates, in Mantralayam on the Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka border, was believed to have prompted the Union government to implement EWS reservation and change its strategy on many issues.

In another message seen as directed at the BJP, the RSS chief cautioned workers to keep their distance from the benefits arising from being in power. “Whatever the swayamsewaks do in politics, the Sangh is held accountable for the same. Even if we are not implicated directly by others, there is certainly some accountability, as ultimately, it is the Sangh where the swayamsewaks are trained,” Bhagwat said.

While the new Sangh has been seeking to accommodate the LGBTQ, Bhagwat took this further by basing it in Hindu mythology to say that people with different gender inclinations “have always been there”.

Bhagwat also specifically talked about increasing women participation in the Sangh. “There are some places where school- and college-going girls also attend shakhas. Today we don’t tell them, ‘This is not for you’. We encourage them to form their own groups and simply observe minimal distance during prarthana (the prayer performed at the end of a shakha). We are doing such things. But, how to formalise this, we have to think… and we will do it soon,” the RSS chief said, pointing out that one of the Sangh’s core activities now is Kutumb Prabodhan, directed at families.

He added that it was partly because of Covid-19 that women’s participation had increased. “When for nearly two years, shakhas were conducted at home, women are likely to have been more active. They are demanding a greater role.”

The Sangh chief also addressed the question of a population policy, but importantly, stressed that Hindus too must play a role. RSS leaders have often raised the spectre of “high birth rate among Muslims” when talking of controlling population. But, Bhagwat said, “First of all, Hindus must understand this… they are in a majority… Those is power and those who want the best for Bharat take up this problem and do whatever is necessary in the matter. So we are clearly reiterating what is well known to all. We do not want to oppose anyone… But this cannot be done forcefully, people must be educated.”

At the same time, Bhagwat reiterated the Sangh view that as much as birth rate, “conversions and illegal immigrations were the main reasons behind the (population) imbalance”.