The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, which is in its centenary year, has given this country two very popular prime ministers, said Home Minister Amit Shah, countering Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s demand to ban the organisation.
“But he (M Kharge) didn’t give any reason. We all know that the RSS is an organisation that has inspired millions of youth like me to make the country a better place. It has instilled values of patriotism and discipline. And we should also see that two people who came out of RSS have become the Prime Ministers of this country. And perhaps both of them (Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi) will be considered as one of the best Prime Ministers of this country,” Amit Shah told NDTV’s Editor-in-Chief and CEO Rahul Kanwal at Bihar Power Play conclave in Patna on Saturday.
The RSS is the ideological parent of the BJP whose cadre are indispensable in the party’s election efforts.
“The RSS’s contribution to the development of the country, to show the right direction to the society, to gather the people in the country, to take the youth not only for themselves but for the country as well, is a huge contribution. I understand M Kharge’s intention, but it will never be fulfilled,” Amit Shah said.
On Friday, Mallikarjun Kharge said if PM Modi respects the views presented by India’s first Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel, the RSS should be banned.
“These are my personal views and I openly say that there should be one ( ban on the RSS). If PM respects the views presented by Vallabhbhai Patel, this should be done. All the wrongs in the country and all law and order issues here are due to BJP and RSS,” the Congress chief alleged.
The Congress chief’s remarks came after PM Modi accused Congress of not properly following Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s legacy. PM Modi made the remarks in his speech at Rashtriya Ekta Diwas Programme in Kevadia in Gujarat.
MP Karti Chidambaram, Kharge’s own party colleague, seemed to differ with him on the practicality of the demand.
“This kind of request obviously is not going to be acceded. There was a time when the RSS was banned and then the ban was revoked… I don’t agree with the RSS-BJP’s political ideology, but I’m not too sure whether a ban is really feasible and sustainable in today’s legal environment. And you’ve got to also understand that the government today is run by members right from the Prime Minister who are ardent members of the RSS,” Karti Chidambaram said.
The RSS was founded by KB Hedgewar at Nagpur on Vijaya Dashmi in 1925. It has been banned at least thrice in independent India.
“RSS is India’s banyan tree of immortal culture and modernisation,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 30 this year, when he visited the RSS’s headquarters in Nagpur.
PM Modi, a former RSS pracharak (full-time volunteer), was the first sitting Prime Minister to visit the RSS’s premises.
“It’s been 100 years since RSS was established. The RSS has made a huge contribution in these 100 years. Today, it is the largest self-governing organisation in the world. It has created millions of people who have taken the path of patriotism. The RSS has thousands of such people who have neither their own home, nor a bank account, nor a family. They have come forward with the aim of serving the motherland,” Amit Shah said.
Amit Shah hailed the RSS as a great “patriotic organisation”.
“I believe that the people of this country should give strength to such a patriotic organisation, an organisation that gathers the people’s strength. Those who talk of banning it, they don’t know that an election is going on. The people are going to answer them in the elections,” he said.