Every person who lives in India belongs to this country and that overrides all other considerations. We must identify ourselves with the country first before we identify ourselves with any other purpose.
When you say you are a Hindu, it means that you are a citizen of the country first. What is really important is that your loyalty, your affiliation, your commitment is first to this land than to any other party or to any other purpose. That, I think, is the definition of Hindutva.
Does this mean that your definition of Hindutva does not include any religious bias?
It is not just me. This is the definition of the Shiv Sena's concept of Hindutva. Unfortunately, they have been wrongly portrayed and projected.
Let me give you an example -- 12 per cent of Malaysia's (a country in South-East Asia) population comprises of people of Indian origin. If these people decide that they will be Indians first and Malaysians later, will the Malaysian government tolerate their attitude?
India has traditionally been known as Hindustan even in the scriptures. Even the Britishers have described us as Hindustanis. The people who belong to Hindustan are Hindus, just like all those people who belong to Malaysia are Malaysians. I don't think that the Shiv Sena attaches any other meaning to this term.
What is your attitude towards the Swadeshi movement?
I have yet to understand fully what they mean by the Swadeshi movement.
What Mahatma Gandhi meant by Swadeshi and what we mean when we talk of Swadeshi in 1996 has to be totally different. What Mahatma Gandhi said then had a social relevance. We have to take into consideration the social relevance today.
I am not saying that we can adopt Mahatma Gandhi's principles today. At the same time, I cannot also say that we should adopt the Swadeshi Jagran Manch's principles openly. There cannot be complete laissez-faire. At the same time there cannot be total state control as it existed in the erstwhile USSR. We need an intermediate path.
Why were you allotted the Rajapur constituency?
I belong to Rajapur. I still have a family house there. Many of my relatives are still there. If my father had not migrated to Bombay, I would have still been living at Rajapur and, most probably, campaigning for one of the candidates.
Besides, I have been associated with this constituency for several years. Not on political grounds, of course, but through various social institutions. Some of these organisations are connected to the Konkan in various fields like arts, science, education, culture, physical development and do overlapping work in my constituency. So people know me very well. And I have reason to believe that they will vote for me.
Do you feel you would be able to serve the people better as a politician?
I think so. Parliament is a law-making body. If you are there, you can react to the law-making process. As a social worker, you react to the laws that are made. If we are involved in the process of making laws, we can contribute a lot.
How do you rate your chances at the polls?
One hundred per cent. I know I am going to win; there is no question about it. The people of this region know me. I have the party machinery behind me. At present, we are only trying to improve the margin as much as possible.
Ever since I was nominated, I have received a lot of requests for work. This is not coming from BJP-Shiv Sena workers but a lot of people who are not into politics at all. These people come from different facets of life. That is a very positive sign and I'm sure that these people will definitely vote for me.
What will your campaign strategy be?
There are a number of things I wish to do for this region. The Konkan has a very unique cultural identity that must be retained and preserved. At the same time, we have to keep in mind that the economic prosperity of the region has been totally neglected for the last 50 years or so.
We want the Konkan to prosper. Development is something that will come about anyway. If we construct one kilometre of road, that is development. But we cannot be content with only one kilometre of road any more.
We have plans for industries have are native to this region. Fishing is a traditional occupation since the Konkan has the longest -- 720 km long -- coastline. We plan to improve the prospects of fishermen in this region. This will also benefit my constituency which is totally coastal on one side.
Besides, we have plans to develop the tourist potential of the area. My constituency has lovely beaches; it has great potential as a historical tourist attraction. We are also extremely close to Goa and I hope that, eventually, we will be able to attract a lot of tourists from there.
Horticulture is another industry that has the potential to provide a lot of employment to the people of this region.