RSS is association of upper castes: Siddaramaiah

Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah on Tuesday dubbed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as “an association of upper castes” while calling upon Congress workers to fight against “fake patriots”.

The former chief minister was speaking at the 80th anniversary of the Quit India Movement.

“I oppose the RSS from the beginning as it is just an association of upper castes. They believe in the ‘Chaturvarna’ (caste) system. The ‘Chaturvarna’ believes in the supremacy of upper castes. Under such a system, there will be inequality, leading to exploitation,” Siddaramaiah said.

He also questioned the contribution of the BJP and RSS in the freedom struggle. “They opposed the national flag, anthem and the Constitution. How can they be patriots? We must shut up the fake patriots. Only we have the moral right to do that,” he said.

Mocking the BJP’s ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign, Siddaramaiah claimed that V D Savarkar and M S Golwalkar had opposed the tricolour. “For 52 years, the national flag was not hoisted in the RSS headquarters at Nagpur,” he said.

Siddaramaiah even dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “a great dramatist”.

Speaking on the occasion, Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar said there is “an undeclared emergency” in the country, citing the Enforcement Directorate’s action against his party leaders in the National Herald case.

“Congress is the true inheritor of the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and India’s freedom movement,” Shivakumar said, accusing the BJP of trying to “distort history” and “insulting the national flag and anthem”.

The party has decided to take out a massive foot march from the Sangolli Rayanna Circle to the National College ground in Basavanagudi on August 15. At least one lakh people will take part in this “apolitical” event, according to Shivakumar.

According to him, over 35,000 people have registered for the Freedom March. More than 23,000 among them are aged below 30 years of age.