New Delhi/Nagpur: RSS and the BJP on Wednesday went
on a damage control mode over the Sangh parivar founthead
chief prescription of a "surgery" or "chemotherapy" for the
saffron party's revival and Rajanth Singh's unsavoury
response.
Mohan Bhagwat, RSS Chief clarified he had only meant that
it was for the BJP to decide whether it needed "chemotherapy"
or 'surgery" in the backdrop of its Lok Sabha debacle.
"I did not say chemotherapy is needed (by BJP) but you
know what happens in the media. Now I do not even want to
clarify. The news channel has clarified the issue. By now the
clarification is there even on our website," Bhagwat said.
He was speaking at the release function of former
Panchajanya editor Tarun Vijay's book "India Battles to Win".
Bhagwat had created a controversy yesterday in Jaipur,
where while replying to a question on whether BJP needed
chemotherapy or surgery or medicines, he said, "As far as BJP
is concerned, whatever surgery, medicine, chemotherapy is
essential for them, it has to be diagnosed by them (BJP)."
Rajnath Singh, the BJP president, when asked for his
response to chemotherapy and surgery recommendation, had said
yesterday, "Who says this? Who is out of his mind?"
Singh today denied having made any adverse comments
against Bhagwat saying he was a 'Swayamsewak' first.
"It pained me when I saw (reports attributed to him) on
TV last night and in newspapers today which said I have
reacted to Bhagwat's statement," Singh said in Nagpur.
Singh, who was here to felicitate the newly-elected
BJP MLAs, said there was no question of his having questioned
whatever Bhagwat had said "since I am a Swayamsewak first."
The so called secular forces are trying to divide the
Sangh Parivar, but will never succeed in their evil designs,"
he said.
‘Scars of 1962 war should not be forgotten’
RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat
said if India wished to carve its own identity vis-a-vis
China, it should not forget the scars of the 1962 war even
though the present situation was different.
RSS has been critical of India's stand against China
during the past few months which has witnessed increase in
incursions by the neighbouring country in Arunachal Pradesh
and which had also raised objections to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's visit to the state.
"We (India) are in competition with them (China) ...
scars should not always be forgotten," Bhagwat said.
Giving an analogy in which a driver insists on driving
after meeting with an accident as he feels if he did not do
so he would be afraid of driving in future, Bhagwat said,
"Though the 1962 days were different, what has to be forgotten
should be but what has to be remembered (scars) should not be
forgotten ... There is a clash between India and China."
He said India should realise that after 1962 China had
gained a lot in the international fora through good relations.
India too should master the Chinese "Art of War" and gain
power without going to war, he suggested.
Bhagwat said India should strive to carve a separate
identity for itself instead of emulating China or US. "India
should say it wants to become India," he said.
Bhagwat invoked Swami Vivekanand's thoughts to say
that India was a power which could not keep itself aloof from
international politics and should play a vital role in it.
However, he said honest debate and "merciless
introspection" was very important for the country to progress.
He lamented that in India people debated for the sake
of debating. The exercise should lead to some solution, he
added.
Bhagwat said he was not opposed to democracy or
debates.
"While India had known social untouchability, an
ideological untouchability was now creeping in," he lamented.
Bureau Report