Need to develop 'live' people-to-people contact between India, neighbouring countries: Bhagwat

New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday stressed the need to develop "live" people-to-people contact between India and its neighbouring countries.

Delivering the keynote address on the second day of his three-day lecture series on 100 years of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at Vigyan Bhawan here, Bhagwat said most of India's neighbouring countries were "once Bharat itself".

"The people are the same, the geography is the same. The rivers are the same, the forests are the same, everything is the same. Only lines have been drawn on the map," he said.

"So the first duty is that these people who are our own are connected with the feeling of belongingness. The countries will remain separate and were so earlier too," he added.

From this point of view, efforts should be initiated for developing a people-to-people contact between India and its neighbouring countries, Bhagwat said.

"What is called outreach in today's language, we call it live contact. Humans meeting with humans, heart-to-heart talks. Man-to-man contact. This should start,” he said.

The environment that will develop through this effort will make relationships between India and its neighbouring countries "complementary" to each other, and will benefit the world, he added.

But everyone should progress on the basis of the "inherited values". "India should contribute to this. India is the biggest among all (neighbours)," he said, without naming any country.

Bhagwat said that late RSS leader Laxmanrao Bhide, during a training session held for some people who came from abroad in 1991, had told them that the first generation of the RSS volunteers organised Hindus in foreign countries and the second generation ensured that they stayed away from addiction and crass consumerism.

"He told them that this is your third generation. The first generation has shown that Sangh's 'shakha' can run everywhere.

"And today in foreign countries, the volunteers of the Sangh are organising the Hindus there through different organisations. They carry forward the shakha system. They can create a good life everywhere," the RSS chief said.

Bhagwat said that Bhide also told them that after becoming a volunteer of the Sangh, the shakha training keeps a person away from excessive consumption, addiction, etc.

"He (Bhide) told them that this is your third generation and the responsibility is coming on your shoulders to establish such a Sangh in your country, seeing which the people of that country will say that we should also have such an RSS," Bhagwat said.

The RSS chief said that Bhide's remarks seemed like mere theorisation at the time.

"I am happy. I used to think that this is theorisation… But last time, a lot of people came to see our Sangh 'shiksha varg' in Nagpur. While leaving, they said that they should also have an RSS," Bhagwat said, adding, "India has to do this." But to show the path, Indian society will have to present its own example, the RSS chief said.

He stressed the need to bridge the divide in Indian society through initiating dialogue among different communities and religious groups. PTI PK PK KSS KSS