“Even we meet leaders of different religions. When the PM of our country meets important people in the world and increases the stature of the country, it should be a matter of happiness,” RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) said PM Narendra Modi’s meeting with Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church at the Vatican, only enhanced the country’s stature. “What is wrong if the head of the government meets anyone in the civil system in the world? We welcome it because we believe in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family). We respect all religions,” RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said on Saturday.
“Even we meet leaders of different religions. When the PM of our country meets important people in the world and increases the stature of the country, it should be a matter of happiness,” he said.
Hosabale was speaking at a media interaction on the conclusion of the three-day Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal of the Sangh in Dharwad. To a query on a push by the BJP for an anti-conversion Bill in Karnataka, Hosabale said, “Increasing the number by any method cannot be accepted. There have been many resolutions passed in the country and many states have passed an anti-conversion Bill.”
“There is the freedom to change one’s religion by own personal will. But what is happening today is not that…There are people who get converted and do not reveal that, taking double benefits. The RSS has always said that conversion should be stopped and if a Bill (against it) is passed, we will welcome it,” he said.
On a question on the RSS’s stand on moral policing in Karnataka, as was seemingly endorsed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, he said “nobody has the right to do policegiri” even as he added that there will be reactions when sentiments are hurt. “The Sangh is of the opinion that there will be a reaction if anything hurts the feelings of a community or society. But the social leadership will have to take care that it does not become violent.”
On October 13, Bommai, in a reaction to acts of alleged moral policing in Mangaluru, where a BJP MLA had gone to a police station to receive two men accused of attacking three women and a man over an inter-faith friendship, had seemingly endorsed moral policing by saying, “There are multiple sentiments in a society and people will need to function in a manner that does not hurt sentiments. When sentiments are hurt, there will normally be action and reaction…Some youths need to ensure that the sentiments of their society are not hurt. This is a social issue and we need morality in society. We cannot live without morality.”
The RSS general secretary said the government will introduce a Uniform Civil Code when it thinks it appropriate. “The political decision on when it should be implemented must be taken by them (government),” he said.
He said the Sangh has been seeking a national population policy for a while and that the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat only reiterated it recently. “There should be a population policy…it has to be scientifically assessed how many people can be maintained in this country on the basis of the available natural resources,” he said.
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