Spirituality should be part of India's education system: RSS

RSS joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya on Saturday said spirituality has no connection with religion and should part of India's education system.

"Spirituality is India's speciality. It should be part of our education system. Spirituality has no connection with religion. Admiring all religions is spirituality. Spirituality should always be seen as spirituality and not as the difference," said Vaidya, with Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani on the dais as the chief guest.

He was addressing a gathering here at the India International Centre (ICC) on the occasion of annual 'Narad Samman' for journalists organised by RSS' communication wing -- Indraprastha Vishwa Samvad Kendra (IVSK).

Vaidya objected calling Hindus as fundamentalists and using the word nationalism in India's perspective.

"Hindus can never be fundamentalists. He can be angry or sometimes he can be assertive but he can never be a fundamentalist," he said.

He said that the word nationalism came from Western countries and using the word in India's context was wrong.

"I saw the headlines in newspapers after the Lok Sabha results were out. Some gave the headlines as 'Victory of Nationalism.' In fact, it should be the victory of national expression," he said.

In her address, Irani suggested awards for rural, regional and photo/camera journalists as well and expressed concern over the state of affairs in the scientific and cultural journalism.

Veteran journalist Ram Bahadur Rai was conferred with lifetime achievement award while Sidharth Zarabi was given 'Narad Samman' for overall excellence in journalism.

The award for photo or video category was given posthumously to Doordarshan cameraman Achutanand Sahu, who was killed in a Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh during the coverage of the state Assembly polls.