Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: In remarks that could stir a fresh political controversy, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Friday accused BJP state governments of sheltering people affiliated to RSS, allegedly involved in bomb blasts, terming it as "Sanghi terrorism".
"We have to avoid saying Hindu terror but we should say Sanghi terror," he said.
He also said that the sources of funding of the organisations affiliated to the RSS needed to be probed. "It is necessary to enquire from where these organizations are getting funds. From where are they getting international funding also needs to be examined,” Singh said.
"All those who are making bombs run away to Gujarat and they get shelter there... Swami Aseemanand settled there. Who gave his organisation the forest land? The governments of BJP give shelter to such elements. There is a need to keep an eye on them," Singh added.
A known detractor of BJP and RSS, Singh referred to a number of terror cases like Samjhauta Express blasts case, Mecca Masjid and Ajmer blasts in which members of some RSS affiliated organisations were arrested recently.
Asked about the basis of his accusations, he said it was his personal view adding, “Otherwise, why was a police team of Haryana not given any cooperation by the Gujarat police when it went to investigate the Samjhauta blasts there? Why was Aseemamand given shelter?”
A former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Singh said he was ashamed that his home state got a bad name as this entire group is spread out in the state.
Training his guns on senior BJP leader L K Advani, Singh said that it was his Rath Yatra in the nineties which had instigated trouble in the Hindi belt of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
"LK Advani`s Rath Yatra has given birth to terrorism in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and the whole of the region," Singh said, addressing a `National Meet on Tracing Sangh Terror Trail and Stories of Innocent Muslim Boys` organised by civil society group Anhad.
"The Rath Yatra by Advani is the base of terrorism in India. Earlier, Pakistan used to say that the Indian government doesn`t trust the Indian Muslims, but after the Rath Yatra, the blame became a reality because several Muslim youth were harassed, tortured and detained illegally," he said.
"Whenever BJP is weak, it takes up a communal issue. They would like to build a mosque or hoist a flag only where there is dispute. Without dispute they cannot survive. Ramjanambhoomi issue was there for long, but they took it up in 1985 when their strength in the Lok Sabha was a mere two," he said.
Singh also chose the occasion to categorically assert that he was not convinced about the genuineness of the Batla House encounter of 2008. "I still have doubts about the encounter as in no encounter, all the five bullets can hit the head (of the alleged terrorist Aatif who was killed in the encounter) and not a single one touching any other part of the body."
He also rued that twenty six English medium educated youths of Azamgarh were arrested on doubt only because their cell numbers had registered calls from Aatif.
The Congress leader has been in limelight for his controversial comments on Hindu terrorism. Singh recently created stir with his claims that Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who was slain during the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist strike, had received threats from Hindu extremist outfits.
Singh, however, said that banning the RSS is not a solution.
"Ban on the RSS is no solution at all. There are more than hundred outfits of the Sangh Parivar. If you ban one, several others will continue to exist. We have to face them ideologically," he said.
With PTI & IANS inputs
