Days after Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat said girls and boys between the age group of 10 and 12 years were being radicalised in Jammu & Kashmir, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said the children from there are “nationalists” but sometimes get motivated in the wrong direction and those guiding are the “culprits.”
Rawat had also said the misguided youth have to be weaned away by lodging them in deradicalisation camps.
Dispelling the notion of radicalisation, the Defence Minister said those youngsters “should not be seen in any other way.” Making this observation when asked about his opinion on the children from Jammu & Kashmir being motivated to join the National Cadet Corps (NCC), he said, “Youngsters are youngsters only. Sometimes, the way they should be motivated, people do not motivate them. In fact, they are motivated in the wrong direction.”
“That is why the kids should not be blamed for this. The ones who are wrongly motivating them should be blamed. The ones who are motivating them in wrong direction are the culprits,” the Defence Minister added. He made these remarks after attending the Republic Day annual camp of the NCC.
In his address during the Raisina Dialogue here last week, Rawat had said children as young as 10 to 12 years are being radicalised in Kashmir and there is need to isolate those completely radicalised and put them in deradicalisation camps.
He said radicalisation can be countered by looking at where it is happening and who are behind it. The CDS also said radicalisation is happening in schools, universities, religious places and sites and then there are people spreading this. “First we need to get to the nerve of who is radicalising people. You can start isolating these people gradually and then start a counter radicalisation programme by identifying people who have been radicalised, to what degree...” he had said.
Meanwhile, addressing the NCC cadets, the Defence Minister said Indian values consider all religions equal, and that is why the country is secular and never became a theocratic state like Pakistan.
“We (India) said we would not discriminate among religions. Why did we do that? Our neighbouring country has declared that their state has a religion. They have declared themselves a theocratic state. We didn’t declare so.” “Even America is a theocratic country. India is not a theocratic country. Why? Because our saints and seers did not just consider the people living within our borders as part of the family, but called everyone living in the world as one family,” the Minister said.
Singh underlined that India had never declared its religion would be Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist and people of all religions could live here.”They (saints and seers) gave the slogan of ‘Vasudev Kutumbakam’ — the whole world is one family. This message has gone to the whole world from here only,” he added. He later presented Raksha Mantri Padak and commendation cards to NCC cadets and observed band and cultural performances of NCC cadets. Praising the parade and various performances of cadets, the Defence Minister said it has been able to boost the sense of national pride among Indian youth.
He also said the NCC plays an unparalleled role in transforming the youth into future leaders. “Today, NCC cadets can be found in almost every field, including Armed Forces, politics and sports. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is taking our country to newer heights, was an NCC cadet,” Singh said. He also recalled his days as a cadet of the largest uniformed youth organisation in the world.