Comments of the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, by drawing a parallel between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the terror outfit Islamic State (IS) or Daiesh has not gone down well with the BJP.
He has said Congress leaders are suffering from ‘RSS phobia’. While talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a function here today, Minister of State (MoS) in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh said: “The RSS is a nationalist organisation and not a terrorist one. But when the Congress feels it is losing the plot and is being marginalised by the people of the country, it is haunted by RSS phobia.”
The minister was critical of Azad and his approach of bringing the RSS everywhere. “He had even attributed his loss during the Lok Sabha elections from the Udhampur seat in 2014 to the RSS. This has remained his trend since long,” he said.
Jitendra had defeated Azad from the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 and was rewarded by his party by including him into the Union Council of Ministers.
Azad on Saturday drew a parallel between the RSS and the ISIS, evoking sharp responses from the Hindutva outfit and the BJP, which demanded an apology from him.
On the ‘intolerance’ debate, the BJP leader said India needed freedom from such “intellectuals” who were out to spoil the name of the country. “I think in no other country across the world such things will be tolerated. If freedom is needed, it is needed from such intellectuals, who invent new formulae (to defame the country),” Jitendra said. “Their sole motive is to be in the news by speaking against the Modi government,” he added.
Earlier speaking at the function, Jitendra lauded the role of the Sindhi and the Kashmiri Pandit communities for preserving their language. He said despite having suffered so much, the two communities had preserved their culture and language.
Cong suffers from RSS phobia: Jitendra
