No need to fear RSS in Northeast: Kiren Rijiju

Amid a lurking fear among many that with the BJP striking gold in the recently-concluded Assam state elections and announcing its entry — big-time — into the Northeast (NE) region, the RSS may aspire to impose strong Hindu beliefs and customs on people of the region, Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju has said there is no need to fear the RSS or its ideology.

“There is a lot of wrong propaganda and wrong campaign against the RSS. But if you come close to the RSS and know it well, then it is the most patriotic cultural organisation in the country,” the minister told this newspaper.

“Common people often fear Hindu ideology will be imposed. It is not true. Hindutva includes all the numerous indigenous faiths and belief systems that are rooted to this land. Only those who are critical of the Indian ethos oppose RSS ideology,” Mr Rijiju said.

Three of the Northeast region’s states have overwhelming majorities of Christians, while the others have substantial numbers of religious minorities like Muslims, Christians and practitioners of indigenous faiths.

With one of the fears being the imposition of Hindi, the minister, who also heads the official languages department, said: “According to a 1964 law enacted in Parliament, Hindi is an official language. So all official documents will be in Hindi. But that is so only in the Hindi-speaking states. In other states, regional languages and mother tongue languages are promoted and accorded priority and that is the government policy”.

Surging beyond expectations, the BJP and its allies bagged 87 of Assam’s 126 Legislative Assembly seats at the recent polls — clearly a landmark development for the saffron party’s entry into the NE in a big way.

Terming the BJP’s astounding win as “spectacular”, Mr Rijiju said: “In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in the NE, it will be only about BJP. We will dominate. After all, people of the region gave enough chances to the Congress for more than six decades”.

“Nor is the BJP’s win in Assam just a political victory. It has national significance. The NE has been facing a lot due to various security issues and the influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. So the NE requires a nationalist government which is very strong in its quest for securing indigenous people,” he said.

“Besides development, securing the present and future of the indigenous people of Assam will be the main priority and the home ministry will take the lead, In close coordination with the Assam government, we will now secure the borders and identify illegal immigrants. It will be the beginning of a very positive constructive engagement on the burning issues of the NE,” he added.

Last week, Mr Rijiju joined a select group of Indian VVIPs who have flown the Indian Air Force’s Sukhoi fighter aircraft. “Now my plan is to got to the remotest border areas on foot to stay with the soldiers, whether it be on land or on sea basically to familiarise myself in places where our soldiers serve and to go where no senior officials have ever gone before”.