Mohan Bhagwat should “convey this same message to the BJP and Narendra Modi,” Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke said on Friday, a day after the RSS chief said at an event in Mumbai featuring over 2,000 students that Gen Z was not anti-national but “our people”.
“The most important part of Mohan Bhagwat’s statement yesterday was his remark that Gen Z should not be labeled ‘anti-national’,” Dipke told ANI.
“Since Mohan Bhagwat acts as a mentor to the BJP, I would like him to convey this same message to the BJP and Narendra Modi… I hope they will now listen to Mohan Bhagwat and heed his words. It is unlikely that the BJP would defy the RSS. If they did, the RSS would have to reflect on the fact that the BJP is ignoring even Mohan Bhagwat,” he added.
Opposition leaders said they were unimpressed by Bhagwat’s outreach and accused the RSS of aiding the government’s doublespeak.
Asked by reporters about Bhagwat’s answer to a student interviewer at the event that Gen Z was “our people”, the Congress’s Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said: “They don’t need a certificate from Mohan Bhagwat ji.”
Other Congress leaders pointed out that Union home minister Amit Shah had not spoken about or answered questions on the police action on young protesters during the CJP-led march to Parliament on July 20.
“If he has any sincerity to the Gen Z let him ask to the home minister of India to resign or at least come to the Parliament and apologise to the students,” Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal told reporters when confronted with the same question about his reaction to Bhagwat addressing Gen Z and Gen Alpha students.
“RSS is controlling the government,” he said. “If he has any sincerity towards the students he has to condemn the atrocities that happened against the students – pellet gun, lathi charge. The students are asking for that only. Why he keeping mum on that?”
At the Mumbai event, on being asked about concerns that student protesters may be labelled “anti-national”, Bhagwat said: “…I want to make it clear that if Gen Z engages in any agitation, they are not anti-national. They are our own people; they are our next generation. A sense of belonging and mutual respect is needed for dialogue to take place. We need to recognise and respect each other. Only then can a meaningful dialogue happen, where we understand their concerns and they understand our perspective. This is how it should be….”
Azad Samaj Party president Chandrashekhar Azad said the language of the BJP was different from that of the RSS.
“A couple of days ago, an RSS office bearer was saying that they were not protesters, they were anti-national elements. Several BJP leaders had raised questions over the protesters. Mohan Bhagwat interacted with Gen Z… they must have been members of their social or political organisation. The truth is that youths are angry and the biggest reason is unemployment,” he said.
