BHOPAL: “Shed the ego that you are reforming society or cultivating values among the uncultured. Instead, focus on addressing the basic needs of the deprived by providing them with education, healthcare and employment,” RSS chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat said on Tuesday in tribal-dominated Balaghat district of BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.
Bhagwat was addressing a gathering in Karanja village after inaugurating the Smriti Bhawan and Balasaheb Deoras Eye Hospital. Karanja is the ancestral village of Balasaheb Deoras, the third chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and his elder brother and senior pracharak, Bhaurao Deoras.
The RSS chief delivered a strong message on the need to focus on empowering deprived communities rather than approaching social service with a sense of superiority.
“Do not harbour the ego that you are reforming society or cultivating values among the uncultured people of society. Work for people who have been living in poverty for a long time, who are deprived of education and employment and who have not been receiving adequate healthcare. Fulfil their needs and empower them. Once they become capable, everything else will happen on its own. Once the deprived become capable, you will see that they move ahead better than you,” he said.
This was the second time in 18 days that Bhagwat had cautioned against ahankar (ego and arrogance). On September 18, while addressing the Yuva Dharma Sansad in Ujjain, he had said that a person driven by arrogance often develops the misconception that everything is under their control and should happen according to their wishes.
“Whether you believe it or not, the sun will rise and set; it will happen that way. A person who acts out of ahankar, believing that everything is under their control because of their ego, carries the misconception that everything should happen according to their own will. But that is not so,” he had said.
Bhagwat’s emphasis in Balaghat on providing education, healthcare and other basic facilities to deprived communities comes against the backdrop of reports of inadequate healthcare facilities in parts of the tribal-dominated district. Between May and August, more than 30 children belonging to the particularly vulnerable Baiga tribe and the Gond tribe reportedly died due to infectious diseases, malnutrition and inadequate access to basic healthcare facilities.
The issue has been taken up by opposition parties, including the Congress, which has targeted the Dr Mohan Yadav-led BJP government over the deaths.
On October 1, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi visited Jagla village in Balaghat district, one of the affected areas, and met bereaved families. He held the Centre and state governments responsible for the deaths and assured the families that he would raise the matter in the Lok Sabha.
Elaborating on his message, Bhagwat narrated an incident from the time Bhaurao Deoras travelled extensively through Jharkhand, where religious conversions were then reportedly widespread.
“Bhaurao Deoras went on pravas in Jharkhand. He went from jungle to jungle and village to village. In one village, an uneducated elderly village headman told him, ‘You have come from outside and are giving us knowledge about religion, but we have preserved our religion with great effort. Many things are being forgotten where you come from. We are poor, we are destitute and we have been struggling against all kinds of hardships for centuries, yet we have preserved this religion.’”
“Our people do not need to be taught about religion. Arrange education for our children and bring us malaria pills, and we will take care of everything else. We will not abandon our religion; we will protect it. But we must have the strength to protect it. Remove our weakness, give us education and healthcare,” Bhagwat quoted the village headman as saying.
“As a result, Shishu Mandirs (Saraswati Shishu Mandirs) were opened at various places in the jungles of Jharkhand, and the concept of the Ekal Vidyalaya model was also born there,” he said.
Bhagwat said the country’s social reform tradition has consistently placed service to the most deprived at its centre.
“In the past 200 years, our country has produced more great personalities than the entire world has produced in 1,000 years of history. Be it Swami Vivekananda or Mahatma Gandhi, all have focused on serving the most deprived. Gandhiji did not merely engage in politics; he put political workers to work in the service of the people,” he said.
“Our society is eternal and possesses the wealth of our traditions, but if it remains weak, it will forget everything. Strengthen it, recite the first line of the forgotten song to it, and it will begin singing the rest of the song,” Bhagwat added.
Elaborating on the role of the RSS and its swayamsevaks in serving people, particularly the deprived, Bhagwat said the organisation focuses on developing self-reliant individuals committed to serving society.
“The Sangh enhances the quality of people, improves their organisational skills and inspires devotion to the motherland. It instils in everyone the habit of serving all by considering everyone their own. It develops people who, being self-reliant, carry out all this work,” he said.
“The Sangh does not take credit for it. The ones who do it are swayamsevaks. What is a swayamsevak? One who serves of his own accord, without anyone else having to ask him to do so. While serving, they do not seek rewards,” Bhagwat said.
Praising Captain Smit Machchhar for his reported life-saving actions during the recent flydubai flight incident, Bhagwat said the pilot had demonstrated extraordinary courage by continuing to protect passengers despite suffering stab wounds.
“Even after suffering stab wounds, he kept all the passengers on the plane safe, saving them without caring for his own life. Such qualities are inherent in Smit Machchhar, a son of this very soil,” he said.
Bhagwat said such a spirit of selflessness, commitment, sacrifice and service had been part of India’s civilisational ethos for centuries, adding that Captain Smit Machchhar had exemplified the uniqueness of that ethos.
He said such qualities were evident even during the time of the seventh-century Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang. “Three students of Nalanda Vidyapeeth are believed to have jumped from a boat into the River Ganga to save the Chinese traveller and his texts, relics and images from being swept away by a storm,” he said.
