Bhagwat Defends Hosabale’s Pakistan Dialogue Remarks

Thiruvananthapuram; RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday defended remarks by senior RSS functionary Dattatreya Hosabale advocating dialogue with Pakistan, stating that the comments referred to the people of the neighbouring country and not its government.

Responding to a query during an interaction held as part of the centenary celebrations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bhagwat said the RSS would follow the Union government’s policy on Pakistan.

He said, “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.”

On the question of future engagement, Bhagwat said, “and for that the doors of dialogue need to be kept open.”

“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.

He reiterated that the RSS does not have an independent foreign policy and aligns with the Centre’s position on international matters.

In an earlier interview, 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.”