‘We are not like Hitler, should keep doors open’: RSS chief Bhagwat backs Hosabale on Pakistan dialogue
NEW DELHI: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat supported the organisation’s general secretary, Dattatreya Hosabale, over his remarks calling for talks with Pakistan, which had sparked a major controversy.Also Read | ‘India should not close doors for dialogue with Pakistan’: RSS general secretary Dattatreya HosabaleBhagwat, whose organisation is the ideological mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stressed that the RSS has no independent foreign policy regarding any nation and follows the central government’s stand on the neighbouring country.“But there are a lot of people in Pakistan who believe the partition of Bharat was wrong and many journalists there praise the RSS and its work. There is a distinct undercurrent there of people being anti-Pakistan and against the two-nation theory and they say living together was better,” PTI quoted him as saying.He was speaking at an event in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram.The Sangh chief further stated that since India is “not like Hitler,” it needs to keep its doors open for talks with Pakistan.“In a future war, if India defeats Pakistan beyond repair, the people there will have to be brought into the fold of Bharat or they should be able to live peacefully in that country itself. For that, the doors of dialogue need to be kept open,” Bhagwat remarked.“We are not like Hitler. That is not our nature or our way. So we need to keep some doors open. We should vanquish injustice and tyranny, but we should also preserve what is good,” he added.In an interview with PTI in May, Hosabale had said, “The security and self-respect of a country have to be protected and the government of the day should take care of it. But at the same time, we need not close the doors. We should always be ready to engage them in a dialogue.”Although he was backed by former Army chief Manoj Mukund Naravane, he came under attack from opposition politicians such as Mehbooba Mufti and Kapil Sibal, among others.
