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The RSS chief’s comment scotches all speculation of him or PM Modi retiring at 75
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. (File image/PTI)
Dismissing all speculation that “anyone should retire at the age of 75″, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Thursday that he had never said that he would or someone should quit at that age. Both Bhagwat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi turn 75 next month.
News18 had asked Bhagwat if the RSS believed that those on constitutional posts should retire at the age of 75. This correspondent had cited Bhagwat’s comment in July in Nagpur at a function when he had recounted an anecdote to say that if someone puts a shawl on your shoulder at the age of 75, it is a sign that one has grown old and should move aside to make place for others.
The Congress had picked up Bhagwat’s comment to say that the RSS chief had reminded Narendra Modi that the PM would turn 75 this September. Hence, News18 asked Bhagwat for his comments on the interpretation some had made that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should also retire as the PM when he turns 75 next month.
“I never said I should retire or someone should retire,” Bhagwat said on Tuesday, when this correspondent’s question was read out to him at a function in Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi.
“In Sangh, we swayamsewaks, we are given a job. Whether we want it or not. So if I am 80 years old and the Sangh will tell me to go run a shakha, I will have to go. I can’t say I have completed 75 years, I want to enjoy retirement benefits. Now, there are no benefits. Even if I am 35 and Sangh will say you sit in the office, we do whatever Sangh tells us. We don’t say I will do this, I want this, I want that, that is not allowed. We are not here to accomplish anything,” Bhagwat replied.
He went on to ask that did anyone think he could be the sarsanghchalak of RSS? “There are at least 10 people sitting here in this hall who could anytime take this mantle and carry on. But they are very busy in their contribution…they cannot be spared. I was the one who could be spared,” Bhagwat said.
He again said that his comments were “not for the retirement of anybody or myself. We are ready to retire anytime in life, and we are ready to work as long as the Sangh wants us to work. That is the thing.”
Aman Sharma, Executive Editor – National Affairs at CNN-News18, and Bureau Chief at News18 in Delhi, has over two decades of experience in covering the wide spectrum of politics and the Prime Minister’s Office….Read More
Aman Sharma, Executive Editor – National Affairs at CNN-News18, and Bureau Chief at News18 in Delhi, has over two decades of experience in covering the wide spectrum of politics and the Prime Minister’s Office…. Read More
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