RSS chief calls for law on population control
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday called for a law or a policy on population control and early construction of a “grand” Ram temple in Ayodhya. He indicated his support if the government were to bring an ordinance on the temple issue, provided such an ordinance would stand legal scrutiny.
Bhagwat took up several questions on the last day of the three-day outreach conclave of the Sangh. With crucial elections months away (both to five states and subsequently to the Lok Sabha) he presented the moderate face of the RSS as an organisation devoted to social work and building a strong nation. The session was also marked by an outreach to the Dalits. Bhagwat supported reservations, stating the constitutional provision should end only if the demand comes from Scheduled Castes themselves, but said the problem was the politicisation of the reservation issue. He supported the law to prevent atrocities on SCs and STs, but said it shouldn’t be misused.
The RSS chief didn’t mention either Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah by name, or even the Congress party, but said expediency made politicians use such language as “shamshan-kabristan” and "saffron terror", which shouldn’t happen. The RSS chief said the 92-year-old Sangh opposed cow vigilantism and law should punish perpetrators, but wanted to know why a similar hue and cry, as raised to protest lynchings, is missing when cows are rustled.
On issues relating to its core agenda, Bhagwat said the RSS wanted abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A of the Constitution, which provide for special status to the state of Jammu & Kashmir, and favoured consensus for implementing the Uniform Civil Code. He said homosexuals had a place in society.
To a question thatMuslims feared the Sangh, Bhagwat said the RSS disagrees with the use of the term ‘minority’, which the British introduced. He said Muslims would change their opinion of the RSS if they were to study the Sangh closely, and they were the children of this land as their forefathers were Hindu. Bhagwat disowned second RSS chief M S Golwalkar’s views of Muslims in his book, Bunch of Thoughts. Golwalkar had identified Muslims, along with Christians and Communists, as enemies of the Hindu Rashtra.
Bhagwat didn’t disappoint supporters of the Sangh on the Ram temple issue. He said a final decision rested with the Ram Mandir Samiti, which is spearheading the campaign. The case is being heard in the Supreme Court.