It's the popular will, not politics that makes history - Mohan Bhagwat

It's the popular will, not politics that makes history - Mohan Bhagwat
By Virag Pachpore

“The RSS has been promoting this Hindutva to take the nation to the highest pinnacle of glory without deviating from the culture and heritage of this country.” - Mohan Bhagwat 

“When the Constitution was made, there were all-round attempts to make India a secular republic. In fact, some provisions of the Constitution were specially formulated for achieving that end.” - Justice (Retd.) KT Thomas

"The only prescription for all the ills confronting the nation today lies in the philosophy of Hindutva. It is the bedrock of our national and social life. It connotes the way of life and encompasses all the faiths and languages in India”, asserted Shri Mohan Bhagwat, Sarsanghachalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). 

Speaking at the concluding function of the third-year Sangh Shiksha Varga (RSS training camp) at the sprawling Reshimbag grounds in Nagpur, Shri Bhagwat made a passionate appeal to all the people to join RSS in order to know and understand the organisation. “Our doors are open for all”, he said. “The RSS has been promoting this Hindutva to take the nation to the highest pinnacle of glory without deviating from the culture and heritage of this country”, Shri Bhagwat said and appealed to all to contribute in this task by joining the RSS. 

Shri Bhagwat said that leaders, policies, administration and slogans cannot make the future of any country. It is the popular will that writes the destiny the way they want. Hence, awakening the popular will with full faith in our traditions and cultural ethos and injecting the spirit of selfless dedication to motherland will alone take our nation to the position of the world leader (vishwa guru). This might appear to be the longest way, but this is the only way and hence shortest too, Shri Bhagwat said and added that since last 85 years the RSS has been doing exactly the same. 

Explaining that the word Hindu represents our national identity, Shri Bhagwat said that it is wrong to describe Hindu as a religion. “Hindu and Hindutva represent the cultural heritage of every Indian irrespective of his way of worship, religious faith and language. Hindutva encompasses Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs in India because it is the national identity of all of us,” she stated. 

Taking a dig at those who prefer ‘Bharatiya’ to ‘Hindu’, the RSS Sarsanghachalak said that ‘Hindu’ does not connote the mere geographical boundaries of India while Bharatiya has a mere geographical connotation and cannot define the cultural dimensions associated with the word ‘Hindu’. 

Giving historical proofs Shri Bhagwat said that those regions where the Hindu population was reduced to minority or converted to other faiths, got separated from India in the recent past. Loss of Hindutva is the main reason behind the recent problems of internal security, regionalism, separatism, etc, being faced by the country, he said. 

Unity in diversity is our peculiarity. And this is our true identity also. Hindutva welcomes all good things and thoughts from all the directions and honour all faiths and views. There is no place for conversion. All other countries except India do not believe in this principle of unity in diversity. The concepts of conversion and imperialism often arise from bigotry and hatred of other religions and faiths, which has no place in Hindu culture, tradition and ethos, Shri Bhagwat pointed out. 

Quoting Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Dr Verghese Kurien, the Sarsanghachalak said that all great thinkers have said time and again that common people will have to be motivated to achieve the progress, prosperity and peace and to make India a world leader. Owing to the continuous neglect of harnessing the immense capabilities of the common man, the nation has failed to achieve this potential in various walks of life. 

India has made progress after Independence but social problems like poverty, unemployment, internal security, terrorism, etc, are also increasing. To overcome these problems the only solution is to sacrifice all our qualities at the altar of our motherland, Shri Bhagwat said and added that the Sangh has been doing precisely this in a silent manner, and urged all to come close to RSS, participate in this task of national reconstruction and become a part of this great movement. 

Former Supreme Court judge Justice KT Thomas, who could not make it to the concluding function due to personal problem, strongly advocated the need for bringing uniform civil code. He lamented that even after six decades of Independence no concrete steps were taken by the successive governments in this regard. 

In his written speech, which was read out by camp Bouddhik Pramukh Shri Suresh, Justice (Retd.) Thomas said that when the Constitution was made, there were all-round attempts to make India a secular republic. In fact, some provisions of the Constitution were specially formulated for achieving that end. One such provision is Article 44. But the irony today is that anyone who pleads for enforcement of the directive principle enshrined in Article 44 is dubbed a communalist and those who oppose are hailed as secularists, Justice (Retd.) Thomas said in a sarcastic comment on secularism professed in present India. 

He was all praise for the wonderful work the RSS is doing. “I have more admiration for the activities of RSS than criticism, unlike some other members of the minority communities who entertain prejudices towards this organisation”, he said adding that he “keeps an open mind in seeing the functions of RSS and hence have no prejudice against it”. He disclosed that he developed this admiration for RSS from the days of Emergency when the RSS suffered a lot for restoration of constitutional democracy in India. 

“I have been watching the performance of this organisation and hearing the utterances of its leaders. I often feel that I have larger areas of agreement with this organisation than disagreement”, Justice (Retd.) Thomas stated. 

The apex court's former judge credited Sardar Patel with integrating India immediately after Independence and passing of the Constitution. He, however, lamented that the picturisation of Indian nation by Pt Nehru as “unity in diversity” has remained a dream even after 60 years of Independence. Justice (Retd.) Thomas wondered as to how many Indians could proudly proclaim that he is Indian first. He criticised the media for not playing its due role in achieving uniform civil code. There can be no valid argument against bringing the whole nation under a uniform code of laws subject to provincial variations, he said. 

Narrating his experience at a seminar on minority rights in one of the universities in Kerala, Justice (Retd.) Thomas said that one of the legal professionals belonging to minority community said that he has a feeling of insecurity with his religious identity. Justice (Retd.) Thomas told the gathering that despite being a member of a still smaller minority community he feels no such insecurity. He advised the member to shun his identity as a member of that religious faith and earn his identity as an Indian citizen and then he would have no reason to entertain this apprehension. Religious faith must be kept as an extremely personal matter and should not be allowed to intertwine with the citizenship identity.

Sangh schools score high in Orissa

Sangh schools score high in Orissa
Posted: Wednesday, Jul 01, 2009 at 0345 hrs IST 
Bhubaneswar: 
Debabrata Mohanty 

The High School Certificate examinations in Orissa have thrown up a surprise result—hundreds of Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandirs (SVM) have performed exceptionally well with 44 of the top 102 students coming from the Sangh Parivar-run school network. As many as seven of the top 10 ranks are from SVMs. 

While Bibek Bishal Mehena from Saraswati Vidya Mandir in Rourkela secured the top rank, Sanket Dash of Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandir in Berhampur town and Ansuman Tripathy of Saraswati Vidya Mandir in Bolangir secured the second and third positions respectively in the results declared on Tuesday. Last year too, these RSS-run schools had done well with 15 of its students securing top-20 positions. Trends over the past six years have shown that SVMs generally do better than other schools in the state. 
From humble beginnings in 1978, the march of these RSS-run schools is a success story that has not been highlighted much. Today, there are over 11,000 Acharyas and Gurumas (teachers) in 739 SVMs across the state who live a no-frills life to teach 1.8 lakh students from kindergarten to Class XII for a pittance. While critics harp at the saffronisation of little minds by the Sangh Parivar, parents seem to be happy with the performance of the Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandirs that dot the towns and villages of Orissa. Pitabas Mehena, father of this year’s topper, Bibek Bishal Mehena, credits his son’s success to the meticulous planning of the teachers and the perfect synergy between students, parents and teachers. “Though the teachers get lower salaries than their counterparts in government-run high schools, no one can beat them when it comes to dedication towards their students. For them it is a mission,” said Mehena, a pharmacist in a government
hospital. 
 
As part of its stringent evaluation system, each student has to appear in at least seven examinations in an academic year—five monthly, one half-yearly and an annual test. No wonder, of the 6,500-odd SVM students who wrote the exam this year, about 4,500 secured first division. 

Educationists agree that the emotional commitment of the teachers to the students in these schools is what differentiates them from the rest. “In government schools, teachers teach just for the sake of it. In Shishu Mandirs, they attach a lot of ethical value to the education,” said Dharanidhar Nath, president of Board of Secondary Examination, the body that conducts the HSC examination. 
Ironically, the RSS, known for its scorn for Christian missionaries, works on each students with the same zeal as missionary schools. And like the missionary schools, the SVMs also don’t depend on government grants. “We don’t get any monetary help from the government. The students pay fees ranging from Rs 50 to 200 a month as per their capability. But we do lay stress on character building and integrity,” said Gobinda Mohanty, Organisational Secretary of the Sikshya Vikas Samiti, the body that oversees the smooth running of these schools.