New Delhi: Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat had said last month that leaders should retire once they attain 75 years of age.
Seven weeks later, Bhagwat claimed that he never said he would retire or someone else should.
Clarifying his earlier remark during a press conference on Thursday to mark 100 years of RSS, Bhagwat said, “At the Sangh function in Nagpur (on July 11), I was quoting a witticism by Moropant ji (senior Sangh leader Moreshwar Nilkanth Pingle aka ‘Moropant’) about how when someone gives you a ceremonial shawl at 75, you should think of retirement… I never said I will or someone else should retire.”
Bhagwat’s comment in July was interpreted as a message for Prime Minister Narendra Modi also.
Both Bhagwat and Modi will turn 75 soon – Bhagwat on September 11, Modi on September 17.
Bhagwat further stated that volunteers of the Sangh do whatever the Sangh tells them to, irrespective of their age.
“In Sangh, we are given a job, whether we want it or not. If I am 80 years old and Sangh says go and run a ‘shakha’, I will have to do it. We do whatever the Sangh tells us to do,” he said.
