He was speaking at an event held in Kolkata on the occasion of the RSS’s 100th anniversary.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: If all Hindus stand together, it will not take time to change the situation in West Bengal, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said in Kolkata on Sunday, but quickly added that his organisation focuses on social, not political, change.
He said that attempts to understand the RSS through the lens of the Bharatiya Janata Party were a huge mistake. The RSS chief also said that the Hindus around the world, including the ones in India, would have to help the community in Bangladesh save themselves from persecution.
He was speaking at an event held in Kolkata on the occasion of the RSS’s 100th anniversary.
“It is for the government to decide who they will allow to cross over to India from Bangladesh. There has to be a control on who will be allowed to come,” Bhagwat said, in response to a query from Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly and a state BJP heavyweight, on the links between illegal migration from across India’s border with Bangladesh and the rising radicalism in West Bengal.
The RSS chief also commented on the atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh.
“They are a minority there, and the situation is quite difficult. Even though it's difficult, for maximum protection, the Hindus there will have to stay united. And Hindus all over the world must help them. We must help them as much as we can, within our limits. We have to do everything we can, and we are doing it,” he said.
India’s protest against the persecution of Hindus and other minority communities in Bangladesh after the change of government in the neighbouring country added to strains in ties between New Delhi and the interim government in Dhaka.
Bhagwat said that the only country for Hindus was India. “The Government of India will have to take cognisance of this. They will have to do something. They might already be doing something. Some things are disclosed, some cannot be. Sometimes there are results, sometimes there aren't. But something has to be done.”
With the assembly elections in West Bengal likely to take place in April-May next year, the RSS chief said that if the Hindu society stood united, it would not take long to change the situation in West Bengal. “Now, regarding my thoughts on political change, I want to tell you that thinking about political change is not my job. We are working for social change through the Sangh.”