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Prof. Rajju Bhaiya's address


Prof. Rajju Bhaiya, Sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS)
address at the Vijayadashmi function in Nagpur.

We are all celebrating the auspicious festival of Vijayadashmi. It reminds
us of the victory of Shri Rama over Ravana, of good(dharma) over
evil(adharma). It also the founding day of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
which is 70-year old today. Those who used to describe Sangh as an
organization of children can today call it an association of elders. Yet
our interest in children and youth has not diminished as they are the
future of the nation. Even today in Nagpur which is the oldest Shaka in the
country, there are more evening (Sayankal) Shakas then morning (Prabhat)
Shakas.

Dr. Saheb used to say that an organization has to pass through three phases
or periods-First, of neglect, second, of opposition and Third, of
appreciation. It appears that today Sangh has embarked on the third phase
as now, we also come across appreciation of, and favorable comments on
Sangh.

Remembering Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri:

Only yesterday we celebrated the 125 th birth anniversary of  pujya Mahatma
Gandhi. Is the present Government carrying out his wishes?? Has a ban on
cow slaughter been imposed?? Has Prohibition come ?? Has a life of
simplicity been adopted?? Is swadeshi being encouraged?? It is in fact we
who are carrying out those wishes. It is also Shastriji's birthday-it is
sometimes forgotten. It was Shastriji who in his 1-1/2 years tenure brought
back Bharat's self-confidence, and he can be called the best PM of the
country. We pay homage to this great son.

In India, birthday is not an occasion for blowing off candles and cutting a
cake; it is an opportunity for mediation and introspection. On this
occasion, we try to find out what have we achieved in 48 years after
independence and 70 years of Sangh work. A Doordarshan video strip telecast
now-a-days keeps repeating "We had seen a dream which is coming true". But
fact is that we are far away from the Bharat of our dreams even after the
lapse of a period of two generations.  Perhaps for having remained without
power for centuries, the power-lust of our ruling politicians has become so
strong that they have become blind like Dhritrashtra and their priorities
and calculations are geared to the attainment of power only.  They are
neither concerned, with the integrity of and social cohesion in the country
nor with the basic needs of the people.

What can we say about their temptation of reaching out to more and more
people by opening new Doordarshan Kendras?  In one lakh forty thousand
villages in the country pure drinking water is not available and there are
no primary schools, but priority, is being given to connecting all villages
through telephone.  Even in fifteen years the Government could not
implement the Prasar Bharati scheme providing for an autonomous set-up for
Doordarshan and Akashvani because persons in power do not at all want to
allow anybody else to use this information media, their claimed adherence
to democracy notwithstanding. The question of electoral reforms has been on
the anvil for many years.  Even though the influence of muscle power and
money-power in elections has been increasing, the proposed reforms have not
been codified till now as it does not suit those who are in power and who
depend for their success in elections on these very factors.  Although the
Supreme Court has referred to the improper maintenance of accounts of
election expenditure in the election petition pertaining to the Nagpur Lok
Sabha seat, no legislation has been initiated on the subject, nor has any
discussion taken place on it.  Instead, only obstacles have been created in
the way of Shri T.N. Seshan, who did make an attempt to bring about some
control over election expenditure. In England some persons were unhappy
with the Conservative Party's Chief, John Major.  He resigned and gave an
opportunity to all the party MPs to choose their leader again.  In
contrast, in our country where, in the past, kings would renounce power and
go to jungles for meditation, now-a-days no leader is prepared to leave his
seat of power unless he is kicked out by others.

There is loud talk of economic progress. But our foreign debt has gone up
so much that 50 per cent of the Government's budget is consumed in the
payment of interest only. In the name of liberalization, multinational
corporations are coming in, as a result of which our small-scale units are
folding up.  Pepsi Cola, Coca Cola and Uncle chips have come up in the
consumer goods sector.  The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch has done much last year
to highlight this aspect.  The Enron episode has revealed how the
multi-national corporations are going to make enormous profits even in the
basic or infra-structure sectors.  But Government's expenditure has not
come down in spite of the difficult economic situation.  A delegation of 28
MPs had recently gone abroad to study the progress of Hindi in our foreign
missions.  But many among these MPs themselves did not know Hindi.  The
telephone bill of each and every minister is above Rs 1 lakh. They. are
proving more expensive than were the kings of yore.  There is no effort for
making the nation self-respecting and self-reliant.

Infiltration: By integrating over 529 princely states into Bharat, Sardar
Patel had lent strength to the unity of India. But what is the situation in
Kashmir which was directly handled by Pandit Nehru himself? Even after
spending ninety thousand crore of rupees, kidnappings are taking place and
bombs are being exploded there daily.

The report of the Census of 1991 has been published recently.  It reveals
that the population of Muslims who numbered two and a half crore or seven
per cent of the total population at the time of Partition, has gone up to
12% or about 10 crore.  Their annual growth rate of 3 per cent is higher
than the Hindu growth rate of 2 per cent.  But even after a threefold
growth, the total Muslim population should not have exceeded 8-1/2 -crore.
The additional increase has been due to infiltration.

Nobody is concerned about the problem of infiltration, though everybody
knows that the incidents of bomb explosion are occurring mostly because of
them.  The percentage of Muslims in the population of Assam has gone up
from 24 to 28.  Four districts have become Muslim majority areas. The
Muslim population of Mizoram has risen by 105 percent. These are official
figures. But whenever attention is drawn towards this phenomenon, political
leaders describe it as a delicate issue which, they say, should not be
discussed as though a discussion on the security of the country is out of
their agenda.  Forty-four militants of the LTTE have recently escaped by
digging a 180 feet long tunnel from inside the Vellore jail. This is a
shocking example of our lax security.  Shri Beant Singh who had been
provided with maximum security was killed right in front of his own office
in Chandigarh.  It is a proof of our weak strategy and loose security set
up.

Corruption: There is rampant corruption in the country today, Rajiv Gandhi
lost power because of one Bofors scandal involving perhaps Rs. 70-80 crore.
But in a matter of four years the present Government has a number of
scandals like Harshad Mehta's securities scam, Kalp Nath Rai's sugar
scandal and foreign contracts' scandal to its credit.

Uttar Pradesh had a Government headed by Mulayam Singh.  The newspapers
were critical of his government.  At first 'Hulla Bol' was launched against
them.  But when it did not work, the Chief Minister doled out crores of
rupees with open hands the governmental funds giving 10 lakhs to some
journalist, 29 lakhs to some other and 1-2 lakh even to an obscure weekly
and so on. There are rules for drawing money from the Chief Minister's fund
for such purposes as the treatment or operation of a sick but needy
Journalist.  But the quantum of such help can only be in thousands.  The
former Chief Minister has maintained that the list of recipient journalists
and papers which has been published is confidential (i.e. not fit for
publication) and that its publication is improper. But the money so
distributed belongs wholly  to the people who want an account of the
expenditure.  Legislators in Bihar have been given a golden wrist watch
each costing about Rs 4-5 thousand.  Therefore there is an urgent need for
a public check on such proclivities of leaders.  But only those who are
themselves upright can apply this check.

The serial bomb blasts in Bombay and the, Naina Sahani murder case in Delhi
have revealed another unfortunate aspcct-the criminalisation of politics.
The Vohra Committee's report tabled in the Lok Sabha shows that earlier,
criminals used to get political protection. But now they have been
emboldened to join politics themselves.  One shudders to think what will
happen to the country's administration if criminals become legislators and
MPs?

Casteism: As though our country did not have enough problems, our political
leaders have created many more serious ones.  Now a person will be
recognized not by his qualities but  his caste.  He will get a job because
of his caste, and will win  an election because of that only.  To be born
in a family does not depend on one's choice.  The choice of caste is not in
one's own hand.  But to be virtuous and talented is in one's hand.  Why
should one try to become virtuous and talented if these qualities do not
carry any weight?  We have to root out casteism and criminalisation from
politics if we want the country to be on the right path.  For it our rulers
have to be virtuous.  It is said that a sadhu is known only by his
knowledge and not by his caste.  Let us all keep it in mind that it is very
much in our hands that virtuous persons come up in politics.

System of Justice : The people are losing faith in the courts as far as the
booking and punishment of criminals is concerned. The cases take such a
long time that the petitioner and the people begin to lose interest in
them. It did not take even a year in punishing the assassins of Mahatma
Gandhi. But it took four years to punish the assassins of shrimati Indira
Gandhi while in the case of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, even after four
years the case has not been filed, forcing his wife to raise the issue in
public. Again, the progress of cases pertaining to the 1984 riots is very
slow which is breeding lack of confidence in the courts. What will happen
to country's democratic system if the confidence of the people in
politicians, bureaucrats, judges and journalists gets eroded??

Mental Slavery: Let us all think how has this country come to such an
unfortunate pass in the last fifty years? The biggest reason for this is
the mental slavery of our leaders. Ours has been a great nation leading the
world in many fields. But our leaders forget this and sometimes imitate the
Britishers or the Russians. Nowadays they are bent upon aping the
Americans. We cannot look for inspiration and self-respect by ignoring our
history of thousands of years and remembering only the last 200 years. But
our leaders have contempt for ancient history because they consider it as
Hindu history. Rama ruled in this country thousands of years ago, Krishna
gave us Bhagvat Gita and Chandragupta and Vikramaditya were born here and
did great deeds.  Is it our fault that there were no Muslims or Christians
around then?  Hindutva  is a way of life.  We should be proud of it.  It
has room for all sects and communities.  The Indian Muslim has no
relationship with Aurangzeb, Mohammed Ghori and Mahmood Ghaznavi.  The
Muslims should be proud of the great men of this country.  Unfortunately,
however, the Congress during the British rule adopted the policy of
appeasement of Muslims.  The same policy is being continued even now.

The Central Government is afraid of enacting a law banning cow slaughter
for which even Gandhiji had laid much stress.  Hindi is spoken
approximately by 70-75 crore people and is understood by 70-75 crore.  In
fact, even the number of those speaking English which is considered to be a
world language is not that much.  But today it is only English which
dominates in the country.  This is not so because of the opposition to
Hindi from the South.  Those who are in power do not want to discard
English because of their own proficiency in it.  It is argued that
vocational education cannot be imparted in Hindi as it does not have a
proper technical vocabulary.  But can we learn swimming without entering
the waters? You will be astonished to know that the vocational education in
England 100-125 years ago was being imparted in Latin or French where as
English was treated as a rural language only. When the patriotic people of
England decided to adopt English as the medium of all education- there was
a furore in that country that hence forward nobody will be able to become a
good doctor or an advocate.  Today the same English is the language of
science and medicine all over the world.

A country is able to achieve all round progress only if it has a sense of
self-respect and pride.  Israel has once again made Hebrew, which was in
disuse for over two thousand years, the language of science and technology.
Therefore at least the seven Hindi-speaking states, having a population of
40 crore, should strive hard for the development of Hindi and removal of
English as a compulsory subject in all examinations.  Only then our bright
students in villages will feel encouraged to go ahead.  I have taught in a
prestigious university for 23 years but have never witnessed a student with
English medium topping the list of successful candidates.

Similarly history is taught to us in such a manner that it establishes the
superiority of invading Moghuls, Pathans, the English. the French but not
of Bharat.  We are taught in history that Sikandar was victorious though
there is no proof of his victory.  Could a person who invaded India for
conquering it, go back after victory, contented with only a bit of its
territory.?

The will to perform great deeds will get an impetus only when we take pride
in and use our language, and rekindle self-respect and self-confidence of
the people by invoking reverence for great men of our nation.  A national
character and very hard work are essential for it. This cannot be achieved
by getting power through political jugglary.  Fortunately the wind is
blowing the Hindutva way.  The recent decisions of the Supreme Court on
Sanskrit and Common Civil Code are a severe indictment of the Government's
policy of appeasement of minorities.  The Tribunal has lifted the ban
imposed on VHP, and has criticized the Government for imposing the ban
without valid reasons.  Due to this change in the atmosphere, formation of
a Central Government responsive to Hindu interests is a possibility.
Anti-national forces have been unnerved because of this Hindutva wave. They
are trying to divide the Hindu society by blowing up small issues.
Sometimes they pit the deprived sections against the middle classes or rake
up differences between the middle class and the upper class.  We have to be
on guard against it.  Bharat's interest lies in the formation of a
pro-Hindu government.  And such a government can never discriminate against
any other mode or worship as the Hindu respects all modes of worship.  We
have imbibed it neither from the English nor from our Constitution. This
has come to us from our ancient tradition and culture.  We always pray for
the good of all. "Sarve bhavantu Sukhinah, Sarve Santu niramayah". We
consider the whole world as one family-Vasudhaiv Kutumbkum is our motto.
We say with conviction "Ekam sat, viprah bahudha vadanti".  Nobody should
have any doubts about the credentials of such people.  Justice to all and
discrimination against none is our principle.

There is no need to tell my brothers in Nagpur that a change in society
cannot be brought about by governments.  The government and its officials
cannot change society.  Our only expectation from the government is that it
does not put up hurdles in our way but creates a congenial atmosphere.
Social change is possible only through a change in the outlook of people.
The way a person gets endowed with values and character in the Sangh shakha
is well known to you all.  There was a time when these qualities were
imparted in Ashrams where children mere sent for education.  When these
Ashrams  ceased to exist due to various reasons, the task of inculcating
traditional values was taken over by Maths-temples, discourses by Sadhus
and Saints moving across the country and pilgrimages.  Today the potential
of even these mediums for inculcating character and traditional cultural
values is on the wane.  It was to meet this necessity that Doctor Saheb
evolved the unique system of inculcating values through the medium of
Shakha.  The activities in a Sakha  promote social cohesion, discipline
discipline and build character of the participants.  Slowly social work
begins to appear like a family work which makes a swayamsevak  do social
work with the same zeal and determination with which he works for his
family.  It is well recognized today that students studying in thousands of
schools run by our Swayamsevak are getting good education as well as good
samskaras.

Swayamsevak doctors are seen doing good work among Vanavasis and Seva
projects.  They have not come from abroad.  They are members of our own
society.  But they have imbibed the spirit of social service in the Shakha
which has strengthened the faith of the whole society, in Sangh's way of
working-through which persons endowed with sense of service for the nation
can be trained.  Therefore the greatest need of the hour is that the number
of our Shakhas should increase, their attendance goes up and their
activities arc more effective in inculcating Hindu values and character.
The whole society will be willing to cooperate with such a Sangh.  Only
then the nation will be able to lead a happy, prosperous and glorious life.
We are striving only for that auspicious day.  I appeal to all brothers
and sisters of Nagpur for their cooperation in this sacred mission and
thank them for participating in this programme.


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