RSS hospital only for Hindus? When Ratan Tata asked Nitin Gadkari

Pune, Apr 15: Industrialist Ratan Tata had once asked Union Minister Nitin Gadkari whether a hospital run by the RSS was only meant for the Hindus, Nitin Gadkari recalled on Thursday.

Gadkari responded to him that the RSS does not discriminate people on the basis on religion. "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 wish that the hospital be inaugurated by Ratan Tata, and asked me to help," Mr Gadkari said after inaugurating a hospital in Pune.

Gadkari was a minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra when the conversation with Tata happened. He had persuaded the industrialist 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.

Tata was happy after Gadkari explained several things to him.