Twitterati expose RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s tall claims at RSS event

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat has been holding forth at the RSS’ three-day lecture series underway in New Delhi. Bhagwat spoke on various topics including Hindutva, role of Congress during the Independence struggle and his organisation’s purported love for the Indian Tricolour.

Expounding the Hindutva concept on the second of the three-day series, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat claimed that Hindutva was the basic thought of all communities residing in India.

Mohan Bhagwat, on Tuesday, said that “Hindu Rashtra doesn't mean there's no place for Muslims. The day it becomes so, it won't be Hindutva. Hindutva talks about one world family”.

Bhagwat claimed that RSS workers held the national symbols including the national flag in the highest respect and respects its opponents. “When Congress passed the resolution for Purna Swaraj (complete independence), Doctor saheb (Hedgewar) issued a circular asking all (RSS) shakhas to march past with the tricolour.”

However, RSS’s stand on the national flag has always remained a matter of controversy. The organisation has always expressed its dislike for the tricolour and held that saffron should be the colour of the national flag. The Caravan shared the circular (see below) issued by Hedgewar on January 21, 1930, asking all RSS shakhas to welcome the Purna Swaraj resolution of the Congress by holding meetings of their respective swayamsevaks on January 26 that year and showing respect to the bhagwa dhwaj as the national flag, instead of the tricolour.

Bhagwat spent a large part of his over 80-minute speech expounding the RSS' adherence to the concept of Hindutva and said unity in diversity, sacrifice, self-control and a spirit of gratitude were defining characteristics of Hindutva.

Reminding Bhagwat about his own flip-flops on the matter, Congress leader Kapil Sibal put out a tweet on Bhagwat’s recent ‘wild dog’ comment in this context.

Speaking at the second World Hindu Congress at the Parliament of World Religions in 1893 in Chicago on September 8, Bhagwat said collaboration and "oneness" is the most urgent need for Hindu society to progress. "Why are we suffering for 1,000 years? We had everything but we forgot to practise values. We also forgot to work together. Hindu society has largest number of meritorious people in many sectors. But they never come together, stay together,” said Bhagwat.

"Coming together of Hindus itself was a difficult task. Earlier, when our Swayamsevaks would try to organise people, they would say 'a lion never walks in a group', but even that lion or a Royal Bengal tiger who is the king of the jungle... if he is alone, wild dogs together can invade and destroy him. It is time the Hindu society showcased its oneness to the world and went back to its ancient wisdom and values," he added, calling upon Hindus to unite.

Besides Sibal, other netizens also joined in at busting most of Bhagwat’s claims in his speeches.