RSS is a political party with cultural mask: MP minister

Bhopal: A key minister of the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh has chosen to launch a scathing attack on RSS at a time when the Sangh Parivar is holding a major convention in the state capital here.

"RSS is a political organisation, because it works on the lines of political parties," said General Administration Department Minister Govind Singh while speaking to the media.

Singh said the RSS has been claiming that it is not a political organisation, but the fact that its chief Mohan Bhagwat has a final say in deciding the names of Chief Ministers and Governors belies RSS' claims.

Singh alleged that the BJP is trying to push the country into the path of communal war. Its leaders are acting like Adolf Hitler, Singh alleged.

Launching an attack on Bhagwat, he said the RSS is playing politics in its true form. "He (Bhagwat) should remove his mask and take over the reins of the BJP. RSS has been exposed in public as a political organisation," Singh said.

"Where does the RSS get its money from? Its offices have been turned into air-conditioned workplaces and they are organising camps across the country. It should come out clean about its finances," Singh said.

The three-day RSS convention is being held in Bhopal to take stock of the issues facing the Sangh Parivar activists and its affiliates since the fall of the 15-year-old BJP government in Madhya Pradesh.

Bhagwat had already held talks with more than 100 pracharaks of Congress ruled Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh since Monday during his four-day sojourn in the city. He has also held discussions with the ABVP brass at Sharda Vihar, a residential school run by the Sangh Parivar.

Sangh is expected to come out with its youth, women and rural outreach programmes, especially to draw support for the Citizenship Amendment Act on Thursday evening.

RSS conventions are usually closed affairs with very little being conveyed to the media. This time around, however, a press handout was released to make some deliberations public. The Sangh refrained from making any observations about the announcement of the Ram Mandir Trust by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the day.

However, the international President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Vishnu Sadashiv Kokje, expressed hope that the trust would construct a grand temple on the birthplace of Lord Ram as per the VHP's proposed model for which stones are being carved for three decades now. Kokje is based in Indore.

"We expect the newly formed trust to build a grand temple on the Ram Janmabhoomi as per the model prepared decades ago," Kokje, a former jurist and ex-Governor of Himachal Pradesh, said on Wednesday.

Sentiments of thousands of saints and lakhs of Hindus are associated with this popular model of Ram temple that has been on display on several occasions, he said.