Dattatreya Hosabale
NEW DELHI : Every Hindu voter became a Hindu worker in West Bengal, Dattatreya Hosabale of RSS said on Tuesday, framing the recent assembly polls as a “civilisational question” for the Hindutva organisation due to the hurdles and attacks it faced there.“It was a struggle not only by RSS volunteers but by the entire Hindu society,” Hosabale, RSS’s second-incommand, told PTI, stressing that his organisation was targeted first by the Left regime and then by TMC due to its work for Hindus.Asked about the role of RSS volunteers in the win, he said as citizens they did everything. Out of their “love for society and spirit for community”, they rallied like-minded people and tried to provide safety to others, including those who were not Hindus.On India-Pakistan ties, he said trust in Pakistan’s military and political leadership is completely missing in India, turning people-to-people contact into the best way to break the deadlock.“That should be tried more and more. I believe strongly that ultimately civil society relations will work. Because we have a cultural relation and we have been one nation,” he said, adding, “Security and self-respect of a country have to be protected, and govt 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 in dialogue.”Hosabale also criticised DMK’s Udhayanidhi Stalin’s call for eradicating ‘Sanatan Dharma’. “It is his opinion, and people have answered it in the elections. Sanatan Dharma will not end just because somebody said so,” he said.
