Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani, who once faced flak from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for dubbing Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah a secular leader, on Thursday said he learnt the meaning of the word secularism from none other than M S Golwalkar, the Sangh ideologue.
Advani said Golwalkar, who took over the reins of the RSS after the death of its founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, firmly believed that rule on the basis of religion is not possible in India and RSS does not approve of such a system.
"Guruji (Golwalkar) was of the view that theocracy is totally alien to the concept of Hindu polity," Advani said after releasing a special issue on Golwalkar brought out by Madhya Pradesh-based media group Swadesh.
He was recollecting his interaction with Golwalkar after the RSS was banned in the wake of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination in 1948.
Advani said initially the Government banned RSS on the suspicion that it had a role in the killing of Gandhi and later media reports quoting officials said the reason was that it did not believe in secularism and it was a secretive outfit.
In the wake of the reports, Advani said, he asked Golwalkar what was the meaning of the word secular when he got a chance to meet him.
Quoting Golwalkar, Advani said he told him that if the government believes that RSS wants a rule on the basis of religion then they are wrong as 'theocracy is totally alien to the concept of Hindu polity'.
"I learnt the meaning of secularism from him," he said.
Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, who also attended the function, said Golwalkar's views were still relevant in today's globalised world.
