Mohan Bhagwat refers to Tablighi Jamaat during address, asks RSS workers not to harbour ‘ill-will against whole community’

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday said that the organisation had remained active amid the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown in India.

The speech — Bhagwat’s first since India went under a lockdown over a month ago — was streamed live via the RSS’ YouTube channel was on the topic: “The current scenario and our role”.

The organisation’s work, Bhagwat said, had taken the form of relief activities — ranging from initiatives to create awareness to providing supplies and helping those who have been stranded. The Sangh workers follow all rules and precautions during the lockdown in the wake of COVID-19, Bhagwat added.

He also urged RSS workers to continue their efforts. “We should continue relief work till this pandemic ends, help all those who are affected due to COVID-19 crisis,” he said. He also urged people to

“India handled this pandemic effectively as government and people responded proactively to this crisis,” Bhagwat added.

In recent times there have been several instances of lockdown violation. Bhagwat also appeared to be referring a tad obliquely to the Tablighi Jamaat even that had led to a spurt of cases in different parts of the country earlier this month. While not referring to the incident by name, the RSS chief spoke about how “more than a third of coronavirus infections in India are linked to it”.

“Do not get angry or fired up. There are members of the ‘Bharat Tere Tukde Honge’ gang, who are trying to incite the public. We cannot harbour ill-will against the entire community for mistakes of a few individuals,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.

Calling India’s 130 crore population the children of Bharat Mata, he said that “there should be no fear or anger from both sides”.

Another recent incident that has shocked people in India is the lynching of two sadhus and their driver in Maharashtra’s Palghar. Bhagwat condemned the incident and calling it unfortunate, Bhagwat said that “they were innocent”.

“The murder of two ‘sadhus’. Should this have happened? Should law and order be taken into one’s hands? What should have the police done? All of this is something to think about,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.

According to a recently tweeted update, the RSS has so far served 55,725 places, and has 3,00,809 dedicated volunteers. The post added that the RSS had donated 33,75,664 ration kits to families and had distributed 2,16,82,540 meal packets. They have helped 3,76,234 migrant workers in different ways and had donated blood to 13,562.