Years of work has brought about change in Northeast: Bhagwat

Extolling the work done by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh volunteers in the Northeast, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said here on Tuesday that due to this "ceaseless" work, a change has come about in the region, imbuing it with nationalist sentiment.

He was speaking at the launch of 'Shubharambh' (An auspicious start), a book written by Nandkumar Joshi, about experiences while working in Arunachal Pradesh.

Sometimes prople from Arunachal Pradesh are treated as foreigners when they visit the rest of India, Bhagwat said.

"When they come to Delhi...we think people in Delhi have a lot of awareness. But in Delhi, people ask them if they are from China. How they must be feeling!" the RSS chief said.

"China is trying all kinds of tactics to woo the people of Arunachal. But people in Arunachal tell them that they belong to India. And here people in the capital of India ask them whether they are from China!" the RSS chief said.

The source of many problems in the country is lack of unity among every section of society and the main reason for that was "lack of communication between us due to foreign invasions," he said.

There was a time when people in the Northeast including Assam said sometimes that if the rest of India did not pay attention to the region's issues, "Assam will become like Kashmir" (will become restive), Bhagwat said.

But today, thanks to several initiatives by RSS workers, such an environment has been created that the sentiment of "we are one, we are part of India" rules in the Northeast, he said.

"People in Arunachal Pradesh take out rallies and tell China that we don't have any relationship with you, we belong to India. The people who have become Christian, they shout 'Bharat Mata ki jai', they participate in 'path-sanchalan' programme wearing Sangh uniform," the RSS chief added.

"This change has taken place and the reason for this change is the work started by a few people (of RSS and associated organisations) fifty years ago," he said.