During his first public speech after resigning from the post of the Vice President of India, Jagdeep Dhankar reminded the audience at a book launch that duty, for him, always comes first and that his “recent past” was proof it.
It was when a man came up to him during his speech to remind him of his flight back to Delhi, that Dhankar told the audience: “I can’t skip my duty for catching a flight, and friends, my recent past is proof of it.”
Four months ago, he took the country by surprise when he stepped down from his post citing health reasons. On Friday, Dhankar was in Bhopal at the launch of a book written by senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary, Manmohan Vaidya.
Praising the Sangh’s philosophy and vision, Dhankar said the book debunks propaganda which portrays the RSS as an ultra-right organisation and its link to the “baseless charge” of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
Also speaking at the occasion was RSS leader, Sunil Ambekar, who hailed the “very good initiative” taken by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to make changes in history textbooks and remove the epithet ‘the great’ from Mughal emperor Akbar or Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan.
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Addressing people at the Orange City Literature festival organised by SGR Knowledge Foundation, Ambekar said “nobody has been removed” from these textbooks as the “new generation should know their cruel deeds”.
“Now, history textbooks are changing and I am very happy that NCERT took a very good initiative and made changes in the books of 11 classes out of the textbooks of 15 classes. The changes in the books of Classes 9, 10 and 12 will be introduced next year,” said the Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh of the RSS.
“I could see that many good changes have been brought in the history books, and more could be done in the future. But now, they (history textbooks) do not have ‘Akbar the Great’ nor do they have ‘Tipu Sultan the Great’. Many changes have been brought, although nobody has been removed from these books as the new generation should know their cruel deeds and should also know because of whom we were victimised and from whom we should be free,” he said.
According to the RSS leader, India is prospering and “we should think about what our future society should be like”.
Praising the country’s youth, whom he said is “very able and has all the exposure”, Ambekar added that it considered “patriotism to be a cool thing”.
“People across the world kept compromising on their civilization and culture in the process of development, and surrendered to the markets and new technologies. Although it brought facilities, it came at the cost of personal and family life, our values and relations,” he added.
About the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, he said it was built to reignite people’s thinking towards their “relationship with the culture of Lord Ram, what is the meaning of the culture of Ram and what relationship does it have with the culture of our country and our future life”
“It was a campaign to make people understand all this and it was done very nicely and I think now the youth are keeping self-respect about the dharma,” he said.
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