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‘Not a single person in RSS…’: Owaisi counters PM Modi's remarks
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi rejected PM Modi's claims of RSS involvement in India's independence, asserting no RSS member sacrificed their life for freedom.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday strongly dismissed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks crediting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) with a role in India's independence movement. He claimed that no member of the organisation laid down their life for the country’s freedom.
Speaking at the inauguration of developmental works at Shaikpet in Hyderabad, Owaisi said, “The Prime Minister claimed that the RSS took part in the war for freedom. I was surprised and concerned about where this story comes from. History shows that not a single RSS member lost their life fighting for the country. If someone can name one, I am willing to hear it.”
Owaisi noted that RSS founder KB Hedgewar was indeed part of the freedom struggle before setting up the organisation. “Hedgewar opposed the British before forming the RSS, supported the Khilafat movement, and was jailed for a year. His involvement in the freedom struggle was prior to RSS’s formation,” he explained.
The AIMIM chief further argued that historical records do not support the claim of RSS participation in landmark movements such as the Quit India Movement of 1942. “The British archives clearly mention that RSS workers never took part in the war and posed no threat,” he said.
Criticising the ideological positions of the organisation, Owaisi referred to writings by MS Golwalkar in A Bunch of Thoughts, where Christians, Muslims, and leftists were described as “internal threats.” He added that the RSS had opposed the Indian Constitution in its early years. “The Prime Minister praises this ideology, but it goes against the Constitution and the principles of equality and secularism,” he remarked.
Owaisi also invoked the sacrifices of Muslims in the freedom struggle, mentioning Maulvi Alauddin and Turribaz Khan, to contrast their contributions with what he described as the RSS’s absence from the independence movement. “If I were to recount the entire history, many would be ashamed. Yet, the current narrative from the PM elevates an organisation that opposed the Constitution and ignored the sacrifices of countless Indians,” he said.
His comments came a day after Prime Minister Modi, addressing the RSS centenary celebrations in New Delhi, lauded the organisation for its role in nation-building. “Just as human civilisations flourish along the banks of mighty rivers, similarly, hundreds of lives have blossomed and thrived along the banks and in the flow of the RSS. Since its formation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has pursued a grand objective. That objective has been nation-building,” Modi said.
