Trade interdependence with other countries on the basis of our strength and terms is Swadeshi: Sarsanghchalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sarsanghchalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat addressed the Swayasemsevaks on the occasion of Vijayadasami at Nagpur today. The speech covered several topics, focussing on the issues of national importance.

Remembering Dattopant Thengadi, the founder of several nationalist organisations including BMS (Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh) and SJM (Swadeshi Jagran Manch), in his birth centenary year, Shri Mohan Bhagwat said, “Forgetting the Swadeshi consciousness, while seeking answers to the pressures of the situation, will also lead to loss. Dattopant Thengadi considered ‘Swadeshi’ as an expression of patriotism in day-to-day life.”

Acharya Vinoba Bhave described Swadeshi as self-reliance (Swaavalamban) and non-violence (Ahimsa). As per any yardstick, those who have got the capacity to be self-reliant and provide employment for all in the country, keeping themselves secured, can only build and expand the international trade relations and offer a secure and healthy future for the entire humanity. Considering our economic scenario, even if we have to choose any circuitous route, we must overcome the compulsions once and for all by setting a destination and direction based on our own strength, the Sarsanghchalak said.

Calling for a green technology and economy, Shri Mohan Bhagwat said that we have to take steps to create more employment with least consumption of energy that is beneficial for the environment. “To minimise the impact of other immediate crises and the ups and downs of the world economy on our financial system, we need to go to the basics and ponder. We have to formulate our own economic vision keeping in mind our requirements, profile and condition of our people and our resources and potential to realise our national aspirations. The prevailing world economic thought is unable to answer many questions. Its standards are also incomplete in many ways; this fact has come before several economists of the world. In that situation, we have to take steps to formulate our own economic vision, policy and system that instil in us capacity to create more and more employment with least consumption of energy that is beneficial for the environment, make us self-reliant in every respect, and create and expand trade relations with the world on the basis of our strength and terms,” he added.