The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is trying to assert its role in the fight against the Emergency as P. Gopalankutty, its State secretary, claimed here on Tuesday that the sangh activists had participated in the movement even risking their lives. He was opening a seminar to mark the 43rd anniversary of the declaration of the Emergency here.
Mr. Gopalan Kutty alleged that some people were coming up with bloated claims about their role in the fight against the Emergency, while activists of the RSS were not talking much about their contributions.
He claimed that the RSS activists did not resort to violence and protested democratically and peacefully even when they were subjected to torture by the police. Reports about the police brutality could not be published in mainstream media because of the press censorship, he pointed out.
The RSS leader claimed that the fight against Emergency was a fight to protect the fundamental rights of the citizens and those who involved in it should be considered as freedom fighters.
EMS criticised
P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, former president, BJP, accused the late Marxist ideologue E.M.S. Namboodiripad of keeping mum when Pinarayi Vijayan, who was their party’s MLA from Koothuparamba, was beaten up badly by the police during the time.
“Namboodirippad, who was the Opposition Leader then, could not even raise a point of order in the Assembly even after Mr. Vijayan’s leg was fractured after the torture. Wasn’t his silence a criminal act?”, he asked.
The party organ, Deshabhimani, did not publish a story about it too. Those who hid themselves out of fear are now talking loud about institutional torture, Mr. Pillai said.
The BJP leader claimed that among CPI(M) leaders, only A.K. Gopalan, who was an MP then, had the guts to declare that “a woman Hitler is born in India” at a protest meeting organised in Kozhikode.
Expressing helplessness about his deteriorating health, A.K.G. had also said that his party should have been in the lead in launching a movement against the Emergency, Mr. Pillai added.
Film screened
The event was followed by the screening of a docu-fiction film on the Emergency.
