Two months ago, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat sparked a row by claiming that Mother Teresa’s main aim in serving the poor was to get them to convert to Christianity. During a 45-minute speech at a convention organised by the Sangh’s social service arm, Rashtriya Sewa Bharati, on Sunday Bhagwat appeared to allude to his controversial remarks about the Christian nun by telling representatives of RSS-linked NGOs to serve all the needy “without any distinction, motives or selfish reasons”.
In February, the RSS chief had said, “Mother Teresa’s service would have been good. But it used to have one objective, to convert the person who was being served, into a Christian.” The RSS later claimed that the media had misreported Bhagwat’s comments.
On Sunday, Bhagwat seemed to have Christianity in mind when he told the representatives of nearly 800 saffron NGOs that the world was “disillusioned at the failure of experiments of 2,000 years”, without naming the two-millennium-old religion. He called on the audience to create “a new symbol, new peaceful, brotherly society and which takes everyone along”.
The Sangh, he said, made no distinctions between the people it served. “Whether somebody is a Sangh Swayamsevak or not, Hindu or not, this has nothing to do with the service,” he said. “That is what we, in the Sangh, believe in. We believe that anyone who is needy needs service. There should not be any differentiation in service, which should be done without any desire of getting something in return.”
However, he seemed to contradict himself immediately after that. “If we serve like that, the number of our shakas will increase,” he said. But then, as if realising the paradox of this statement, he added: “But that should not be the motive behind service.”
Bhagwat’s statement followed a more direct attack on the motives of charitable organisations made on Saturday at the convention in Alipur, on the outskirts of Delhi. At the inaugural session, RSS Sah Sarkaryavah (joint general secretary) Krishna Gopal asserted that charity from foreign lands had hidden motives. “In the lands outside India, charity is not this… There is something hidden in that charity,” he said. “That charity is not without a reason, there are motives behind it. And when there are motives behind service, it is just like business.”
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In February, the RSS chief had said, “Mother Teresa’s service would have been good. But it used to have one objective, to convert the person who was being served, into a Christian.” The RSS later claimed that the media had misreported Bhagwat’s comments.
On Sunday, Bhagwat seemed to have Christianity in mind when he told the representatives of nearly 800 saffron NGOs that the world was “disillusioned at the failure of experiments of 2,000 years”, without naming the two-millennium-old religion. He called on the audience to create “a new symbol, new peaceful, brotherly society and which takes everyone along”.
The Sangh, he said, made no distinctions between the people it served. “Whether somebody is a Sangh Swayamsevak or not, Hindu or not, this has nothing to do with the service,” he said. “That is what we, in the Sangh, believe in. We believe that anyone who is needy needs service. There should not be any differentiation in service, which should be done without any desire of getting something in return.”
However, he seemed to contradict himself immediately after that. “If we serve like that, the number of our shakas will increase,” he said. But then, as if realising the paradox of this statement, he added: “But that should not be the motive behind service.”
Bhagwat’s statement followed a more direct attack on the motives of charitable organisations made on Saturday at the convention in Alipur, on the outskirts of Delhi. At the inaugural session, RSS Sah Sarkaryavah (joint general secretary) Krishna Gopal asserted that charity from foreign lands had hidden motives. “In the lands outside India, charity is not this… There is something hidden in that charity,” he said. “That charity is not without a reason, there are motives behind it. And when there are motives behind service, it is just like business.”
