Alluding to Jyotiraditya Scindia joining the BJP after quitting the Congress , former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh on Saturday said “hunger for power” was more important for some than credibility and ideology, the very essence of a healthy democracy.
“I don’t agree to Sangh [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]/BJP at all but admire their commitment to their ideology,” he wrote on Twitter, a day after filing nomination for the Rajya Sabha election . Even after 22 Congress MLAs submitted resignations as legislators, the party, with a reduced 92 seats, has decided to contest two of the three Rajya Sabha seats up for grabs from the State later this month.
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Stating that it was incredulous Mr. Scindia had crossed over, Mr. Singh wrote: “I never expected Maharaj (Sorry as I myself come from a feudal background I don’t address him as Jyotiraditya) to cross over and ditch Congress and Gandhi Family and for what? Rajya Sabha and Cabinet berth under ModiShah? Sad never expected this from him.”
“I am no admirer of Narendra Modi,” he wrote, “and one of his most bitterest critics but then admire his courage of conviction and uncompromising effort to polarise the country on every possible issue and every opportunity”.
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Mr. Singh alleged Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not realise the damage he was doing to the country by “destroying the social fabric of the country the very idea of India, the very ethos of Sanatan Dharm and Hinduism”.
Mr. Scindia’s supporters have alleged he was given the short shrift by the Congress, more recently in the selection as a Rajya Sabha election nominee. In contrast, Mr. Singh, speaking about himself, clarified though he stayed out of power for a decade, he was offered posts which he declined, as for him “credibility and ideology is more important which unfortunately has disappeared from Indian political scene. Sad”.
“I stayed out of power and worked for Congress party from 2004 to 2014, in spite of the fact that I was offered to join the Cabinet and get into Rajya Sabha,” he wrote. “But I politely declined.”
Mr. Singh claimed he could have easily come to the Lok Sabha from Rajgarh, his home constituency, but declined and let another candidate win.
Pointing out that the RSS had waited from 1925 to the 1990s to come to power in Delhi without wavering from their ultimate goal “Hindu Rashtra”, he wrote, “They have successfully fooled socialists and particularly JP [Jayaprakash Narayan] and now Nitish [Kumar] to achieve their ultimate goal of a RSS pracharak as PM [Prime Minister] of India.”
Earlier, RSS activists devoted their whole life and left their family to work for the Sangh, he added, but now the new pracharaks had changed. “Narendra Modi is the most glaring example of this new breed of RSS Pracharaks,” he wrote.
In 1970, wrote Mr. Singh, Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia, Mr. Jyotiraditya’s grandmother, wanted him to join Jan Sangh while he was the president of the Raghogarh Nagar Palia, but he refused after reading ‘Bunch of Thoughts’ by M. S. Golwalkar and interacting with RSS leaders.
Explaining that he was brought up by an atheist father and a religious mother, he wrote that to him “Sanatan Dharm and my belief is that of Universal Brotherhood not sectarian belief of Hindutva”.
He added that the belief was further strengthened after meeting Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand, “the most respected and senior most Shankaracharya in India in 1981. And I took “Diksha” from him. To me, my religion is humanism “Insaniyat” which is totally opposite of Hindutva”.
To him, power was to achieve the objective of service to humanity and not power by itself, he wrote.
