RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat backs dialogue with Pakistan, says focus is on people

Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 14 (PTI) RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has defended senior RSS functionary Dattatreya Hosabale's remarks advocating for a dialogue window with Pakistan, saying he was talking about the people of the neighbouring country.

Responding to a question about the RSS' view on remarks made by Hosabale in an interview to PTI Videos in May, Bhagwat said the organisation will follow the union government's policy regarding the state of Pakistan.

"But there are a lot of people in Pakistan who believe the partition of Bharat was wrong and many journalists there praise the RSS and its work. There is a distinct undercurrent there of people being anti-Pakistan and against the two-nation theory and they say living together was better," he said during an interactive session held here as part of the centenary celebration of the RSS on Saturday.

Bhagwat said that if, in the future, India was to defeat Pakistan beyond repair, the people there will have to be brought into the fold of Bharat or they should be able to live peacefully in that country itself, "and for that the doors of dialogue need to be kept open." "We are not like Hitler. That is not our nature or our way. So we need to keep some doors open. We should vanquish injustice and tyranny, but we should also preserve what is good," he added.

Bhagwat stressed that the RSS has no independent foreign policy regarding any nation and follows the central government's stand.

In the interview with PTI Videos, Hosabale had said, "The security and self-respect of a country have to be protected and the government of the day should take care of it. But at the same time, we need not close the doors. We should always be ready to engage them in a dialogue." He was asked how India should deal with Pakistan and its continued sponsorship of terrorism. PTI