Violent protests don’t spark positive change: RSS chief on agitations in Sri Lanka, Nepal

Violent protests such as the ones that took place in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal in recent years do not result in positive change, instead they create space for foreign interference, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Thursday.

In his annual Vijayadashami address at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, Bhagwat said that the history of political revolutions shows that they rarely achieve their objectives.

“Sometimes, when the government stays aloof from the people and is not sensitive to their concerns, there is discontent,” Bhagwat said. “But if discontent is expressed in such a manner, it does not benefit anyone.”

Referring to BR Ambedkar’s last speech in the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949, the RSS chief said: “In that speech, Ambedkar had called such agitations, which lead to so much violence and destruction, as the ‘grammar of anarchy’.”

Bhagwat said that social change comes through democratic means, not violent measures.

The RSS chief said that unrest in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal is a matter of concern for India. “This is not just because they are our neighbours,” he said. “It is because they are our own people, and we have long-standing cultural ties with them.”

RSS is the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

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