With Ratan Tata by His Side, Mohan Bhagwat Says Raj Dharma is Not a Business

What is raj dharma? RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat asked this question during a lecture he delivered in Mumbai on Friday. The answer, he said, is the conviction of working for the people by those who’ve been elected to power. “It is not a business.”

The phrase raj dharma is a sensitive one. It was used by the then, now deceased Prime Minister, AB Vajpayee in a press conference held after the Gujarat pogroms, while ostensibly reminding the then chief minister of Gujarat and current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, of how he needed to treat his people equally.

Bhagwat was speaking in a function to commemorate work done by RSS pracharak Nana Palkar, during which he shared the stage with noted industrialist and former chairman of Tata sons, Ratan Tata.

“There is a lot of talk about people willing to work for society. Whoever wants to work, does. Whoever feels kinship with the rest of the society will work for it.”

“What is dharma? To work for the society and ensure that it does not break apart is dharma. To look at the world with a feeling of kinship. The manner in which a father treats a son and a son father, this is dharma. When someone gets elected to high office the question of raj dharma comes up. So what is it? It is not a business” Bhagwat said.

He added, “When we get to the high office we should realise that what we’re doing is not a business. It is a service we’re doing. A service that would take the society ahead. We shouldn’t do this service expecting anything, we may get something in return but that’s a different thing.”

This was the second time Bhagwat shared a stage with a prominent non-RSS public figure. Just weeks ago, the RSS chief had invited former President and Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee to RSS headquarters and shared dais with him.

Bhagwat showered the industrialist with a lot of praise during his half an hour-long speech.

“Jamshedji Tata had once met Swami Vivekanand and Swamiji had asked him to start business for the betterment of the country, which is what Jamshedji did. It is the same spirit that we see in Tata sons today,” Bhagwat said.

He added, “Ratan Tata’s time is very precious there are a lot of other public figures we could have invited to attend today’s show, but the spirit that Ratan Tata embodies is a lesson for us all.”