Rediff Logo
Star News banner
News
Banner Ads Find/Feedback/Site Index
HOME | NEWS | ELECTIONS '98 | REPORT
February 20, 1998

NEWS
VIEWS
INTERVIEWS
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
ISSUES '98
MANIFESTOS
OVERHEARD
POLLING BOOTH
INDIA SPEAKS!
YEH HAI INDIA
CHAT



Kesri sticks to stand, blasts RSS out of the sky

Congress president Sitaram Kesri on Friday stuck to his statement that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh could have had a hand behind the serial blasts in Coimbatore which took a toll of 60 lives last week.

Clarifying his stand on the issue in the wake of conflicting reports, Kesri said, "RSS ka hath hoga," adding that he welcomed the RSS's move to sue him for defamation. "I will not be cowed down by litigation but this gives me an opportunity to expose them fully," he said.

"After a very long time the RSS has chosen to move the court and this will provide an opportunity to bring many facts about the organisation to the fore," he said. Their usual strategy was to file public interest litigation without directly involving themselves, he said.

The Congress president described the RSS as a "fascist organisation" and said it was involved in every single communal riot the country has witnessed since Independence. Most of the commissions of inquiry have also indicted this organisation for whipping up passions on religious grounds, he said.

Asked about the reported theft at the home of BJP vice-president O Rajagopal, Kesri said, "An RSS hand is possible in this episode too."

Earlier, talking to newspersons, Congress spokesperson Surinder Singla said the nexus between the BJP and the ISI has been fully exposed with the head of the Pakistani intelligence organisation welcoming a BJP-led government in India.

Singla said the RSS was banned twice following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The possibility of RSS involvement could not be ruled out in any communal riots, he said.

UNI

Elections '98

Tell us what you think of this report

HOME | NEWS | BUSINESS | CRICKET | MOVIES | CHAT
INFOTECH | TRAVEL | LIFE/STYLE | FREEDOM | FEEDBACK