Peace Will Return to Manipur, But It Will Take Time: Bhagwat

RSS president Mohan Bhagwat expressed optimism that peace will eventually prevail in the northeastern state, stating that it would take time to settle disputes between warring factions in ethnically divided Manipur.

Bhagwat, who recently travelled to Manipur, claimed to have spoken with the state's young delegates as well as the tribal and social leaders.

According to him, the disruptions, which are mostly related to law and order issues, are gradually lessening and are expected to be resolved within roughly a year.

"But bridging the minds is a great task, and it will take time," he said, asserting that the only way is to have dialogue and bring the warring sides to "one page".

"That can be done, because basically the spirit is already there," the RSS chief said at a programme held here to celebrate the centenary of the Sangh on Sunday.

"We could do it in Arunachal, Meghalaya, we are doing it in Nagaland and other places," he said.

Bhagwat said that the RSS has around 100 shakhas in Manipur.

Maintaining that peace will ultimately prevail in Manipur, he said, "But definitely it will take time." Asked by one of the participants in the lecture and interaction programme as to why the Sangh is maintaining a distance from the top BJP leadership, the RSS chief said that the Sangh has always maintained a distance from the saffron party.

"We stay very distant from all BJP leaders," he said, hastening to add, "We have always been close to Narendra bhai (PM Modi), Amit bhai (Union Home Minister Shah)." Both the leaders are known to be close to the Sangh, and PM Modi was earlier a pracharak of the organisation.

He said such narratives regarding relations between the RSS and the BJP leadership should not be taken into account, maintaining that the Sangh does not hide its relationship with anyone, be it any political outfit.