 "Nitin Gadkari")
Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said he once told industrialist Ratan Tata that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) does not discriminate on the basis of religion.
The senior BJP leader inaugurated a charitable hospital in the Sinhagad area here.
Speaking on the occasion, he narrated an anecdote from the time when he was a minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra.
"A hospital named for late RSS chief K B Hedgewar was being inaugurated in Aurangabad. I was a minister in the state government then. A senior RSS functionary expressed wish that the hospital be inaugurated by Ratan Tata, and asked me to help," Gadkari said.
He then contacted Tata and persuaded him to inaugurate the hospital citing Tata Cancer Hospital's contribution in providing cancer care to the poor in the country, he said.
"Upon reaching the hospital, Tata asked if the hospital is only for people from the Hindu community. I asked him 'why do you think so'. He immediately replied, '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.
He (Ratan Tata) replied as it is an RSS hospital. I told him that it is for every community and there is nothing like this in RSS: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari at the inauguration of a hospital in Pune, Maharashtra (2/2)
— ANI (@ANI) April 14, 2022
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
