In my personal opinion, RSS should be banned: Mallikarjun Kharge

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticised the party on the anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's birth, Kharge retaliated, citing Patel's comments denouncing the RSS after Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948.

New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said his personal opinion is that the RSS should be banned as most of the law and order problems in the country are arising because of the BJP-RSS, even as he likened the Sangh fountainhead to snake venom.

Kharge extensively quoted Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's remarks against RSS and his decision to ban it after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi as Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an attack on the Congress on the 150th birth anniversary of the country's first Home Minister.

He also demanded a roll back of Modi government's July 2024 decision to revoke the ban on government employees joining the activities of RSS, claiming the move meant "disrespect" to Patel who himself have given "all reasons" for banning the Sangh fountainhead and warning that the BJP dispensation would be held responsible for the fallout of the move.

Modi said 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. Modi also alleged that the Congress inherited the slave mentality from the British who ruled India.

Asked whether he would demand a ban on RSS like the way Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has sought, Kharge told reporters, “it is my personal view and I openly say that there should be a ban. Sardar Patel has put in public domain his reasoning and if Modi and (Amit) Shah respect him, it should be done. The wrongdoings and law and order problems are due to BJP and RSS.”

He said Patel banned the RSS to protect the interests of the country while it is strange that “two big leaders from Gujarat (Modi and Shah) say this”. Those responsible for Gandhi’s killing now claim Congress doesn’t remember Sardar Patel, he said.

Kharge cited a letter written by Patel to Syama Prasad Mookerjee in which he said the RSS had created an atmosphere that led to the tragedy of the Mahatma's assassination. He also said that the RSS-BJP has always tried to portray a rift between first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Patel though they had great ties and both had praised each other.

“They have lifted the ban on employees joining RSS, which was there till 2024. It is dangerous to wake up a sleeping man. I don't have sophisticated language to express this. If you kill a snake and extract its venom, then you do not taste it to see whether it is actually venom. If you do so, you will die,” he said.

Kharge said references to Mahatma Gandhi, Godse, the RSS and the 2002 Gujarat riots have been removed from NCERT books recently and it reveals their intentions. “Erasing truth from textbooks is not right…They always try to turn lies into truth. Our PM is an expert in this and his followers are walking the same path. Patel banned the RSS to protect secularism,” he said.

He also claimed the Congress is “directly attacked” when it say something about the RSS but remember Patel’s own words, as he referred to a 4 February 4, 1948 letter Patel wrote a letter to Mookerjee in which the then Home Minister saying that the way the RSS expressed joy over Mahatma Gandhi’s death had worsened the situation, leaving the government with no choice but to act against it.