India has no aggressive designs: Jaswant

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, AUG. 12. The Minister for External Affairs and Defence, Mr. Jaswant Singh, has said here today that India does not have aggressive designs on any country.

He was addressing the valedictory function of a programme for training 95 Hindus from eight countries in various aspects of Hindu culture, tradition and way of life. The function was organised by the Vishwa Sangh Shiksha Varga at the Janaseva Vidyakendra of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The Minister said India was exporting good ideas and values to the world. India had not annexed even an inch of land of another country.

Mr. Singh asked non-resident Indians and those of Indian origin to act as ambassadors of Indian culture and messengers of peace and friendship. About two million Indians in the U.S. controlled three per cent of the wealth in that country, and Indians, who constituted only 2.5 per cent of Canada's population, were prominent in the fields of commerce, trade, law, medicine and political leadership there. Indians had become a wealth for those countries.

Mr. H.V. Seshadri, General Secretary of the RSS, said Indians abroad had been successful in highlighting the fundamentals of Hinduism. In Kenya, 80,000 Hindus had formed a council, and the Government there associated it for organising any programme. In England and Kenya, the Indians were able to convince the Governments to publish books on Hinduism. In England, Mr. Seshadri said, the then Prime Minister, Ms. Margaret Thatcher, who attended the Sankranti festival celebration, commended the strength of family bonds among Hindus. The Hindu Swayamsevak Sanghs in different countries were organising Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs abroad on cultural lines.

He narrated the sacrifices of the RSS workers in the terrorist- infested north-eastern States. The RSS, through 28,000 seva sadans and 17,000 vidyalayas, was striving to bring together the Hindus as part of a great renaissance. In Australia and Singapore, the Governments had declared Deepavali as a national holiday.

Mr. Sudarshan Kumar Maini, president, Maini Group of Companies, presided.

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