‘Western forces want to derail and destabilise India,’ says RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, cautions citizens

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said in his speech at the Vijayadashami Utsav in Nagpur on Tuesday that India is the ultimate target of Western forces that want to derail the country from its path of becoming developed and warned that Indians need to be cautious against such calls for regime change. The RSS Sarsanghchalak said Western forces seeking to weaken India are using various means to create instability within the country and would aim to exploit internal divisions.

“There are Western forces that want the country derailed from its path of becoming developed, and efforts to dismantle India won’t succeed,” he said.

He said it is erroneous to think that circumstances will change with a change of regime. “This has never happened before and will not happen again.”

‘Many Western powers want India to lose’

The RSS chief said that there are many Western powers that want India to lose.

“It is evident… there are many powers in the world that want India to lose. There is a storm coming in from the West which hates culture, systems and the security… It wants to destroy…” he added.

“India is their main target because India is progressing. These evil forces know that they cannot disrupt India the way it has moved ahead with decisive policies in the last few decades… they are trying dismantling India and the Sangh,” he said at the Vijayadashami Utsav in Nagpur.

Bhagwat added that protests are instigated to create tensions, anarchy and disrupt public order.

‘Some people of low intelligence and thirst for power in India…’

Bhagwat further cautioned that there is a section of people in India who seem to reflect what these forces want. “There are some people who are of their opinion in India as well…who have low intelligence and thirst for power,” he said.

He urged the society to be on guard and said solutions to problems come from within and not through protests.

The RSS chief also gave examples of France, Bangladesh and Nepal, countries that have seen agitations against the government in recent years.

Remarks follow row over ‘regime change’ remark

Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks came days after senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan said that protests in Delhi against alleged irregularities in the SIR of electoral rolls had become “really a fight for regime change”.

“The government alleges the opposition wants a regime change... Yes, we want a regime change. There will certainly be regime change if this kind of brutality continues. We are currently fighting to ensure that elections are conducted properly,” Bhushan said in a press conference last week.

The BJP hit back and said Bhushan's remarks proved that the anti-CEC protests were a “smokescreen” for the opposition’s alleged agenda to bring down the government.

‘Ensure development does not pose threat to humanity’

The Sangh chief also said India needs to show the way and set a new standard for development that does not pose adverse consequences for humanity. Bhagwat cited the recent floods in Nepal as an example of the mismatch between development and maintaining the ecology.

“What happened in Kolkata (stampede deaths) is because of our own fault… but what happened in Nepal was a natural disaster…” he said.

He cautioned the entire Himalayan area, which includes India, Nepal and China, and said development is creating problems in the area.

“A lot of human loss has happened. We have to balance between development and ensuring that the price of development does not mean people dying,” he said.