‘Like Maoist leaders…’: Bhupesh Baghel takes swipe at RSS, BJP comeback follows

Senior Chhattisgarh BJP leader Dharamlal Kaushik said Bhupesh Baghel’s words about the RSS were not his own but of his Leftist ideology and the Congress has clearly deviated from its core ideology

RAIPUR: A week after police booked BJP leader Raman Singh’s son and a sitting MP for rioting in Chhattisgarh’s Kawardha, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday said there will be an “impartial investigation” into the violence in Kawardha town and lashed out at the leadership of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), who he alleged, dictated instructions to the cadres.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s swipe at the RSS and the BJP comes a day after police booked former chief minister Raman Singh’s son and sitting Rajnandgaon MP Santosh Pandey for rioting in Kawardha town. (PTI)

“Even now, they (RSS workers in the state) are not heard as everything is 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… The same is the situation in the RSS. ..The local RSS workers have no value and everything is centered in Nagpur,” Baghel told reporters who sought his reaction to governor Anusuiya Uikey’s letter.

The RSS, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ideological fount, is headquartered in Nagpur.

In her letter, the governor sought an impartial inquiry into the violence that took place on October 5 in Kawardha, the headquarter of Kabirdham district, during a rally taken out by right-wing outfits. Scores of people have been booked by the police for the violence.

On Tuesday, police named former CM Raman Singh’s son Abhishek Singh and BJP MP from Rajnandgaon, Santosh Pandey, in a case registered for rioting and causing damage to property in connection with the communal violence in the town. District police chief Mohit Garg said both were present at the rally which turned violent after bikes were torched and some houses ransacked.

Baghel’s comments drew an immediate and sharp reaction from the BJP.

Senior BJP legislator and leader of opposition in the assembly Dharamlal Kaushik said, “The way CM has compared Sangh and Naxalism, in reality, these are not Bhupesh Baghel’s words, but are of his Leftist ideology. The Congress has lost its core ideology and deviated from the Gandhian ideology.”

Kaushik also advised Baghel to read up on the RSS. “I advise Baghel that if he wants to speak about the Sangh, then he should read about it. One should see the work of the Sangh by going to the Sangh’s place,” he said.