New Delhi: BJP MP Manoj Tiwari on Saturday said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was behind the thought that led to the abrogation of Article 370 and asked what India would have been if the RSS was not there.
Speaking at a book launch here, the North East Delhi MP said that the thinking of the RSS has not only impacted India but the entire world.
"I wonder at times if the RSS wasn't there, what would India be like today. Who could have thought Article 370 would be abrogated? When Jammu and Kashmir was given the special status, somebody must have taken a pledge that we won't have two emblems, two prime ministers and two Constitutions in one country," Tiwari said, reciting the popular pledge by right wing ideologue Syama Prasad Mukherjee.
The BJP MP added that people may have laughed at the notion then, but they can see the state of the country today.
"The same thinking grew like a banyan tree and it became possible to remove Article 370," he said during launch of the book 'The RSS - 100 years of service dedication and nation building'.
Tiwari noted that if people go deeper to the centre of the thought, they could see "how the thinking has impacted not just India but the entire world".
"Today we can worship Lord Sri Ram, there was a time when people were killed by swords and under the feet of horses, they were converted too, nobody had the right to speak up. Who could have thought at the time that the nation will stand up 500 years later and right all the wrongs. The RSS is at the origin of that thought," the actor-turned-politician said.
The 53-year-old also recalled his early days studying in the Banaras Hindu University and his chance membership of the RSS.
It was when his cricket team's captain got a ticket from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), RSS' student body, he needed a proposer.
"So he approached me and I said ok. But then he told me I'll need to become a member after getting a Rs 5 receipt. After that I realised it was an entirely different world," Tiwari said.