Cong, AIMIM hit out at Bhagwat over lynching remark in Nagpur
The Supreme Court is talking about danger to democracy, it says if its democracy or mobocracy and today Bhagwat is saying that lynching is not part of the Indian culture
NEWDELHI: The Maharashtra unit of Congress on Tuesday slammed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat over his claims that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had nothing do with lynchings and there was no economic slowdown in the country.
Those involved in incidents of lynching came from the RSS ideology, state Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said in a statement here.
“It is as much a lie to say that RSS has nothing to do with lynchings as it is to say that RSS is a cultural organisation, is anti-casteist, pro-reservation and respects the Constitution and the Tricolour,” Sawant said.
“Spreading falsehood is the ideology of the Sangh Parivar,” the Congress leader alleged.
Addressing the RSS’S Vijayadashmi rally in Nagpur on Tuesday morning, Bhagwat said it was wrong to use the term lynching in the Indian context. The term was being used to defame the country, he claimed.
Reacting to the statement, AIMIM leader and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi said: “There cannot be a bigger insult to the
BRINDA KARAT, CPI (M) leader country than the ideology which led to the killing of Mahatma Gandhi and the recent lynching of Tabrez Ansari in Jharkhand.”
“The victims were Indians. Who garlanded convicts? Who draped them in tricolor? We have a Godse loving BJP MP. There cannot be bigger defamation of India than the ideology that killed Gandhi or Tabrez. Bhagwat is not saying stop lynching, he is saying ‘do not call it that’,” Owaisi’s tweet read.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat, too, hit out at the RSS chief, saying, “If RSS chief is true then the Supreme Court of India is most defamed because in July 2018 it was the Supreme Court which took note of mob lynching taking place in the country and gave 8 to 10 directions to the government, out of which not even a single one was implemented.”
“The Supreme Court is talking about danger to democracy, it says if its democracy or mobocracy and today Bhagwat is saying that lynching is not part of the Indian culture,” news agency ANI quoted her as saying.
Karat added that lynching “is not part of the Indian culture instead it is a part of the RSS culture and that is the problem.”
During the event, the RSS chief also stressed that the RSS was firm on its vision that “Bharat is a Hindu Rashtra”, and Hindus need to unite if they want to be heard by the world.
He said all Indians working for the nation’s glory and enhancing its peace are “Hindus”. “The vision and proclamation of the Sangh regarding the identity of the nation, social identity of all of us, and the identity of the country’s nature, are clear, wellthought-of and firm that Bharat is Hindustan, Hindu Rashtra.”
“Those who belong to Bharat, those who are descendants of Bharatiya ancestors, those who are working for the ultimate glory of nation and joining hands in enhancing peace, respecting and welcoming all diversities; all those Bharatiyas are Hindus.”