All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Sunday said that without Rashtriya Swayanvsevak Sangh (RSS) the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is “zero” and, therefore, suspected that the fight between the rebel RSS and the BJP in Goa was “more cosmetic in nature.”
Talking to presspersons at the Congress House in Panaji on Sunday, Mr. Singh called former RSS Goa chief Subhash Velingkar “brave” for his criticism of the BJP in Goa, but somehow felt that the clash between the rebel RSS leader and the BJP was more of cosmetic in nature.
“BJP minus RSS is zero. If RSS very seriously wants to defeat Mr. Manohar Parrikar, the latter can never win. He will fail to win his own election also. But RSS has got a history. Whenever some senior RSS leader goes hostile, the rank and file only listens to the Sar Sanghchalak. Not to likes of Mr. Velingkar,” Mr. Singh said.
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“Although Mr. Velingkar has done a very brave thing and made very strong remarks against the BJP, I saw the video which has gone viral also, my take on this is that all this fight is more cosmetic in nature,” Mr. Singh remarked.
Mr. Velingkar was sacked as Goa Chief of the RSS after his incessant attacks on Mr. Parrikar over his failure to implement the assurances on primary schools’ medium of instruction issue. Since his removal Mr. Velingkar has posed a challenge to the ruling BJP by mentoring a regional outfit of Goa, Suraksha Manch, over the issue accusing the BJP of backing the English language.
Mr. Singh said whenever there is a rift between the RSS and the BJP anywhere, always the will of the Sangh Sarsanchalak at the top has prevailed.
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He observed that the BJP would find it difficult to win elections without the RSS, but now with Mr. Velingkar sacked as the State chief, there was likelihood that the Sangh cadre in Goa would toe the Sarsanghachalak's line and not that of Mr. Velingkar.
‘Modi making a big show of surgical strikes’
Mr. Singh also lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “making a big show out of surgical strikes and taking credit in public,” and alleged that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was in Goa then and learnt about the September 2015 surgical strikes from television.
“They made a big show out of it, that we have done a big thing. In reality, Mr. Manohar Parrikar, Defence Minister, came to know of the surgical strikes from the TV when he was sitting in Goa,” Mr. Singh said at the Goa Congress headquarters in Panaji. Mr. Singh made the remarks in reaction to Mr. Modi’s Goa rally speech on Saturday where he praised Mr. Parrikar as a powerful Defence Minister whose surgical strikes have attracted awe worldwide.
The All India Congress Committee General Secretary said that it was also wrong on part of Mr. Parrikar to have credited his Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) training for the surgical strikes and not the Indian armed forces, which actually carried out the strikes on ground.
“I am sorry to say that a person, who has come from the IIT, and has been a Chief Minister and now a Defence Minister, refuses to give credit to the Army, but wants to give credit to the inspiration from RSS. Does this mean before Mr. Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, the Indian army was functioning without any inspiration? Does he forget the wars which India has won? Decisive war in 1971?” Mr. Singh asked.
He said that surgical strikes are conducted by armed forces on the basis on information received, following which soldiers go in and smash terror centres.
“This has been done earlier and even the ex-chief of Army staff said that. But such things are not taken credit for in public. They made a big show out of it that we have done a big thing,” Mr. Singh said.
‘Attacks happening at the instance of the ruling party’
Responding to the incident of attack on Bollywood director Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Jaipur during the shooting of his film 'Padmavati', Mr. Singh alleged that the same was carried out at the instance of the ruling BJP in Rajasthan.
“My charge is that this has been done deliberately at the instance of the ruling party in Rajasthan. Why these things are only happening in BJP-ruled States? What was the Rajasthan police doing? I also saw that video, not a single policeman was there. Usually when a film shooting takes place generally the police makes a bandobast, an arrangement at that time,” Mr. Singh noted.