India was better off under British rule: Mohan Bhagwat – The Times of India
Anna and RSS | Cartoonist - R Prasad; source-nrisecularvoice.blogspot.com | Clik for larger image.
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said,
“After Independence, the dominance of rich and powerful people in politics and rising inflation have worsened the country’s situation, which is worse than what it was during the British rule.”
Speaking at a function organized by Bhonsala Military School (BMS) to celebrate its platinum jubilee year in Nashik on Monday, Bhagwat said, “All political parties were in power some or the other time during the last 64 years since Independence, but the situation has not improved. Hence, citizens must introspect over what went wrong.”
Stating the importance of imparting education through the mother tongue, he said, “Today, there is an insistence on education in a foreign language (English), instead of education in the mother tongue. As a result, the importance of the foreign language has increased to a large extent in the country.” (via India was better off under British rule: Mohan Bhagwat – The Times of India).
Why the RSS chief feeling so helpless? What can those children do? | Cartoonist Surendra in The Hindu; image source & courtesy - churumuri.wordpress.com | Click for source image.
Defeatist rhetoric
Just what is the logic of making defeatist statements like this, Shri Bhagwat? Forget children, this cannot be said even to adults.
Unless … one has data.
Has concentration of wealth been increasing? There is some evidence to show an uptick in that trend in the last 20 years – compared to the earlier 20 years. Or to some other countries.
But a comparison of the Indian economy during the colonial period and now in terms of concentration of wealth has not been adequately researched or studied.
Simple test
Even without any econometric data, there is a simple way to test the quality of British administrators. If the British were indeed, such great administrators, why is Britain itself in such bad shape?
I wonder on what basis Bhagwat has planted this idea in the minds of school children at Nashik?
If Shri Bhagwat, the head of India’s largest social organization is feeling so defeated, he should shut down RSS. Why is he not activating his cadres to change this. If RSS can support Anna Hazare’s hare-brained ideas, why are they so lost here?
Is Mohan Bhagwat wanting the return of British rule?
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Who’s amung us
There is nothing wrong in what Mr. Bhagwat said .
The statement is first twisted in a mischievous manner and then He is being unfairly criticized .
RSS chief is simply saying that instead of improvement , situation has deteriorated in terms of Rich/poor inequality . To suggest that He was glorifying British Raj is absurd
Maybe he has data which others dont have.
Even if he is right, I am unclear what does he want those children to do?
My other doubt is if it is such a big problem, he can and should do something.
Apart from moaning.
Oh,Yes . It is/ was indeed inappropriate to give a political speech in a gathering of children. ( Though why single out the RSS chief for this- Do not Prime ministers gather School children on 15 th august ,years after years , only to bore them , most of times ,drenched in rain ,with their monotonous uninspiring political speeches !
Second thing, how do you expect Bhagwat to correct the rich/poor inequality . Only Governments can ,through their programme and policies ,take effective measures .
From the very link you provided, Sri Bhagwat said no such thing. I am disappointed that you fell for Toi sensationalism.
The focus of his speech was about security and language, both pertinent to the school type and the occasion he was giving the speech for. Taking one line out of it and twisting and then making a headline is classing “gunga din” indian english media mentality.
Expected better from you. But agree that it was defeatist rhetoric though. I wish he were more clear and positive.
Regards.
All the mainstream media, carried the PTI report of the event. The PTI report did not say one word about the British rule.
The only newspaper, that carried this part of the speech, was the ToI. This, I discovered, after trawling the net for more than 2 hours.
The ToI converted the implication as a statement. A bit of hyperbole … but not misplaced. It also occured to me that there could be a translation problem – but then I did not know if the speech was originally in English – or Hindi.
Considering the total lack of corroboration from any other source – I turned to the RSS website. They have not updated their website after Vijayadashmi.
I asked a 2ndlook reader, who is an active RSS volunteer, if he could help. He turned up with the PTI report all over again.
I doubt it. A statement like this, may not need repetition – or emphasis. Once is enough.
As the head of India’s largest socio-cultural organization, which makes so many claims about its nationalism, committment, cadre, parivaar, et al, to be so bereft of ideas, bothers me.
I would expect action.
Not empty negative defeatist statements to children.
ramdev vs english lang.
This Gunga Din mentality has been a standard media tactic for long. The most common criticism of the RSS starts with Golwalkar’s “We or Our Nationhood defined” , where his lines in praise of Hitler are used to demonize the RSS. The same media treats the desert cult religions with kid-gloves and gives them the benefit of doubt despite centuries of evidence of their intolerance. By any metric, Hinduism’s historic record is a lot cleaner than that of the Desert Bloc religions. We need no lessons from the West on Human Rights.
Mohan Bhagwat has a huge historical role to play, considering that he has a nation to mould. This task has been given up by the political class who are busy planning election strategies. He should be the last to loose hope and throw in the towel.
In many ways, it is painful to see an organization with such a sense of history come to this state. It has lost the debate, at least temporarily and has allowed the BJP to become a Congress clone.
As for Anna and his team, why are they no longer in the news? Where have they disappeared? All the grandstanding having come to nought, what are they upto now?
I always believed there was more to the Anna flare-up than we read in the headlines. Who stoked the Anna fire last year? A foreign hand? The newsmedia? RSS?
Can you take a 2nd look?