NEW DELHI: Amid a row over the electoral bonds, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Sunday said the system was introduced as an experiment with checks and balances.
“We the Sangh perceive the electoral bond as an experiment. It has been introduced with checks and balances… it has not come suddenly,” said Dattatreya Hosabale after being re-elected as the general secretary of the RSS, considered the ideological mentor of the BJP.
His statement came after the electoral bonds were brought to the public domain by the Election Commission following the Supreme Court’s directive.
“Whenever new thing comes, questions arise in the minds of people. Time will tell how beneficial and effective the (electoral bond) system is,” Hosabale told reporters at Nagpur on the last day of Sangh’s annual Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha. He said that when the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were introduced, such questions were also raised.
Replying to a question on the Sangh’s outreach to minority communities, Hosabale said, “RSS is opposed to the ‘politics of minorityism’. For us, everyone is equal and of one nation and one family.”
Hosabale added, “I think the concept of minority in the Indian Constitution ought to be revisited.” Sangh holds that irrespective of one’s religion, no one should be seen through the prism of ‘majority ‘ or ‘minority’. “In India, Muslims and Christians are considered minorities but the Sangh has been trying to have dialogue with them. Within the Sangh, there are many from the minorities but the Sangh does not popularise it as a showpiece,” Hosabale said.
He said that some “separatist terrorists” in Punjab were active on the pretext of farmers’ agitation. On the Manipur issue, he said the Sangh is working to heal the wounds created after violence with people of Kukis and Meiteis.
He said the Sangh is engaging its functionaries to promote 100 per cent voting by creating awareness about the right to vote. “The Sangh is not an organisation of a society but an organisation of the whole society. There should be no animosity, separation, and disunity or anything contrary to unity in the society,” he said.
On UCC, he said it has been implemented in Uttarakhand but the Sangh wants it across the country. Asked about the Sangh’s stand on the disputes on places of worship at Mathura and Kashi, he said, “What was done for the Ram Janmabhoomi movement should not be done for everything. The matter (Mathura and Kashi issues) is in court. If it is resolved by the court, then there is no need for agitation.”
