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'The way Naxals…': Baghel's remark on local RSS workers after Kawardha violence
Baghel said the RSS workers are controlled from Nagpur the same way the Maoists in Chhattisgarh are being controlled by their senior cadres in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday made a controversial remark while criticising local workers of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Baghel said the RSS workers are controlled from Nagpur the same way the Maoists in Chhattisgarh are being controlled by their senior cadres in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
“The way Naxals here are controlled by their leaders from Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, in the same way, RSS people here are guided from Nagpur,” ANI quoted Baghel as saying.
Answering questions on Kawardha violence which took place last week, Baghel assured that there will be an “impartial investigation”. He said that RSS workers continue to work as bonded labourers.
“Even now, they are not heard as everything is being controlled from Nagpur. Like the Maoist leaders are in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and other states and their cadres (in Chhattisgarh) do the job of firing bullets and getting hit,” he said.
The state unit of Congress had alleged the BJP and other right-wing groups were behind the violence.
Earlier today, Baghel reacted to the comment by defence minister Rajnath Singh in which he had claimed that it was Mahatma Gandhi who had asked the RSS ideologue to write mercy petitions to the British.
Baghel claimed Gandhi couldn’t have communicated with Savarkar since the RSS ideologue was in jail. The Chhattisgarh CM also said that Savarkar sided with Britishers after coming out of jail and propagated the two-nation theory.
“Where was Mahatma Gandhi and where was Savarkar at that time? Savarkar was in jail. How could they've communicated? He filed mercy petitions from jail and continued being with Britishers. He was the first to speak of two-nation theory after coming out of jail in 1925,” he said.
On Tuesday, Rajnath Singh said there had been “deliberate attempts” to defame Savarkar by spreading lies about him.
"Time and again, it was said that he filed mercy petitions before the British government seeking his release from jail," the Union minister said at the launch of a book titled 'Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition’.
"It was Mahatma Gandhi who asked him to file mercy petitions," he added.
