Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 31: The Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge invoking the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel has demanded re-imposition of the ban on the government employees from participating in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activities and quickly added that it was his personal opinion as it had not been discussed at the party forum.
“My personal opinion is that RSS should be banned,” Kharge said at a press conference on Friday terming the RSS’s ideology as “poison” for the country.
Stating that it was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Home Minister of India who had banned the participation of government employees in RSS’s activities, which was lifted by the BJP government in 2024, Mr Kharge said it must be reinstated. The BJP immediately slammed the Congress for invoking Patel to attack the RSS after “ignoring” his contributions for decades.
“Sardar Patel also said that one should not work for the RSS while in government service. He had banned government employees from participating in the activities of the RSS and Jamaat-e-Islami, which the Modi government lifted on July 9, 2024. We demand that this ban be reinstated,” said Kharge.
The Congress government in Karnataka, the home state of Kharge, had been at loggerheads with the BJP lately over restricting government employees from participating in rallies of the RSS, which is the ideological parent of the BJP.
Vallabhbhai Patel is a towering figure in India’s freedom movement credited with unifying the country after Independence by bringing the princely states under the Indian dominion. Friday was 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Patel and was celebrated as the “Rashtriya Ekta Diwas” across the county.
Justifying his demand for ban on the RSS, Mr Kharge pointed out that Sardar Patel had in a letter to Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee had mentioned that the RSS celebrated Mahatma Gandhi’s death. Sardar Patel had said the RSS had created an atmosphere that led to the tragedy of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. “They always tried to portray a rift between India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Patel when they had great ties and both had praised each other,” Mr Kharge said adding that Nehru hailed Patel for shaping India’s unity and Patel called Nehru an ideal for the country.
“Sardar Patel united the country. Jawaharlal Nehru believed that Sardar Patel’s contribution was immense. On February 4, 1948, Sardar Patel wrote in a letter about the RSS: ‘The RSS celebrated Gandhiji’s death and distributed sweets.’ After this, the government had no other option,” the Congress chief asserted.
Mr Kharge said as per the report received by Patel, the atmosphere created in the country due to the ideology of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha was responsible for Gandhi’s assassination. Noting that today is the birth anniversary of Patel and death anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Congress president said these two great leaders — “iron man” and “iron lady” — made a big contribution to the country and strived to maintain unity.
This is the history of the Congress and its contribution, Mr Kharge said. Responding to a question on banning RSS, Mr Kharge said, “It is my personal opinion, it should be done” as most of the issues and law and order problems are arising because of the BJP-RSS.
Hitting back, the BJP accused the Congress of ignoring Patel for over 50 years and downplaying his contributions. They never followed Patel’s footsteps and are using his name now to oppose the RSS, asserted BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla. “INC is not the Indian National Congress. It stands for Indian Nazi Congress. Despite all their conspiracies, the court lifted the ban on the RSS. They said RSS was a non-political organisation and government employees can take part in their activities. But the Congress is so intolerant that they stand with the rioters of PFI, SDPI, and MIM but spew venom against RSS, which is working for the country’s welfare,” he said.
Mr Kharge’s remarks came after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in the morning that Sardar Patel wanted to unite the entire Kashmir, just as he did with other princely states, into India, but then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru did not allow it to happen. Mr Modi also said the Congress inherited the slave mentality from the British who ruled India. The country was removing every trace of colonial mindset, he added.
