General secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Suresh Joshi has expressed “pain” at the “redundant controversy” over his organisation's support to the anti-corruption crusade led by Anna Hazare and warned that Mr. Hazare's latest stance of distancing himself from the RSS would be detrimental to his movement.
In a statement issued on Saturday from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, where the RSS is holding its working committee meeting, Mr. Joshi — the most important person in the outfit after its chief Mohan Bhagwat — preferred to give the “entire credit for the success of the [anti-corruption] movement” to Mr. Hazare. After Mr. Hazare made a valiant effort in Ralegan Siddhi to claim that the RSS had not been a part of his movement, Mr. Joshi said it gave him “immense pain” that a person of even Mr. Hazare's stature had been influenced by a narrow political conspiracy.
This was seen as Mr. Joshi's response to a letter written by Mr. Hazare to Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh. The letter said: “I swear to God and say no RSS member or volunteer met me during the 12 days at Ramlila [Maidan], neither was any RSS person seen in my andolan [movement].” He added: “If Bhagwat is saying he supported my movement then he is trying to malign me, the same as your party is. Or it might be a joint conspiracy to defame me …”
With Mr. Hazare having virtually said a “no thank you” to support offered (and given) by Mr. Bhagwat, the RSS went into damage control mode. Mr. Joshi said the controversy was “beyond his comprehension.” Further, “views expressed in his letter [to Digvijay Singh] would prove detrimental to the anti-corruption movement… it will be most unfortunate.”
