RSS doesn’t discriminate on basis of religion: Nitin Gadkari once told Ratan Tata

The incident happened when Gadkari contacted Tata and urged him to inaugurate the hospital citing Tata Cancer Hospital’s contribution to providing cancer care to the downtrodden in the country.

NewsBharati    17-Apr-2022 13:00:00 PM   
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We’re sure you have heard many stories in the past, which depict how really giving RSS actually is. But today, let us tell you the beautiful heart-warming story of how Nitin Gadkari once proved it to Ratan Tata himself, how RSS would never discriminate on the basis of religion. This one is really special as, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari once told renowned industrialist Ratan Tata that, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) does not discriminate on the basis of religion. The senior BJP leader recalled an incident while inaugurating a charitable hospital in the Sinhagad area in Pune, Maharashtra.

Nitin Gadkari
 
While speaking on the occasion, he shared an anecdote from the time when he was a minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra. The RSS functionary expressed a wish that the hospital should be inaugurated by Ratan Tata himself.

“A hospital named for late RSS chief KB Hedgewar was being inaugurated in Aurangabad. I was a minister in the state government then. A senior RSS functionary expressed a wish that the hospital should be inaugurated by Ratan Tata, and asked me to help,” Gadkari said.
 
 
He then contacted Tata and urged him to inaugurate the hospital citing Tata Cancer Hospital’s contribution to providing cancer care to the downtrodden in the country.

After reaching the hospital, Tata asked if this hospital is only for those people from the Hindu community. Responding to this, Gadkari asked him ‘why do you think so?’ Tata immediately replied to this saying, ‘because it belongs to the RSS’.

“I told him that the hospital is for all communities, and no such thing (discrimination on the basis of religion) happens in the RSS,” the Union Minister said. Then, Gadkari explained several things about the RSS to Tata and the latter was filled with warmth and joy after hearing it all.
 
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During the peak of Covid-19, the hospital has seen more than 4036 patients who needed treatment across its centres in Aurangabad. With 255 beds dedicated for Covid care, it treated 4300 patients, made 2 lakh people aware about covid and did vaccination of 50000 + people.

Meanwhile, the minister also said there are not enough facilities available in the education and health sectors in rural areas of the country. He implied that more needs to be done to improve health and education infrastructure in the country. "In the education and health sector, the facilities are not available as required in the country. If the urban area has the facilities, the situation in the rural areas is not good, especially the situation of education. But the facilities are improving," he said. Gadkari also said that he "does only 10% politics and 90% social work".

Kinjal Dixit

Kinjal Dixit has a degree in bachelors in English and is currently pursuing her Master's in Journalism and Mass Communication. She has a hand at writing about infrastructure, culture and in sharing humanitarian stories.