Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday said that caste today exists to serve political purposes, arguing that its traditional occupational basis has disappeared.

Bhagwat was speaking at an event in Mumbai to mark the Hindutva organisation’s centenary. The RSS is the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The RSS chief said that politicians were appealing to caste identities merely to secure votes.

“[A politician] gets votes on the basis of caste,” Bhagwat said. “If I say, ‘I am a Brahmin, every Brahmin should vote for me,’ I will get results.”

“There is casteism in the mind of society, so politicians invoke caste,” he added.

If society no longer responds to such appeals, then politicians will automatically change, Bhagwat said.

The RSS chief also said that it is not correct to say that politicians are casteist or egalitarian. “They are vote-driven,” he said.

While saying that he would step down as RSS chief whenever the organisation asked him to, Bhagwat said that the next head would “only be a Hindu”.

“The sarsanghchalak [chief] of the Sangh cannot be a Brahmin, cannot be a Kshatriya, cannot be from any other caste…yes, whoever becomes it will only be a Hindu,” he said.

Bhagwat also said that the RSS had supported all constitutionally-mandated reservations in educational institutes and government jobs, and added that affirmative action should continue as long as caste-based discrimination does not end.

He said that caste discrimination would end when those who face it say they no longer experience discrimination and no longer require reservations.

“This is happening,” Bhagwat said. “People have started saying that they do not want reservations and that these benefits should go to someone else who needs them. The process has begun.”

He added that caste discrimination would not be eliminated through laws or rules alone, and said that the change would only come if there is empathy in society.