RSS chief lauds Modi government, says 'rashtra niti' following 'suraksha niti'

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Tuesday lauded the Narendra Modi government for "strengthening the national security" and shaping policies according to the security needs of the country.

He said that at the time of independence there was a section that believed that defence forces were not a priority and focus should be on factories.

"However, 1962 showed us how much we need the army. There had been a trend that 'suraksha niti' followed ' rashtra niti'. We were worried about what the world will say. From 2014, that changed. Now 'rashtra niti' is following ' 'suraksha niti'. It is good that the Savarkar era is coming. Good that era of pride in nationalism is coming, good that people will share rights and accountability equally without looking at culture, religion," he said.

He was speaking at the launch of the book 'Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition'. The book has been written by Uday Mahurkar and Chirayu Pandit.

Mohan Bhagwat referred to Savarkar's thrust on military recruitment.

"When we got independence, Savarkar said youth should be given military training as the country had been divided and there would be no peace," the RSS chief said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also spoke on the occasion.

Union Ministers Gen VK Singh (retd), Jitendra Singh, Parshottam Rupala and Arjun Ram Meghwal were among those present at the event.

( With inputs from ANI )