In a new political strategy, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday sought answers from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, complaining him for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s actions in an apparent bid to diminish his stature by implying that the parent Hindutva organisation was the master.
In a letter to RSS chief, Kejriwal posed five questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s actions and emphasised that ensuring the tricolour waves proudly is a collective responsibility of all Indians. The AAP supremo wrote that he’s ‘very worried’ about the current situation in the country. “The direction in which the BJP’s central government is taking the country and its politics is harmful for the entire nation,” he said.
“If this continues, our country and democracy will be finished,” he said in the letter to Bhagwat. Kejriwal accused the BJP of deploying agencies like the CBI and ED against political rivals and giving protection to “the most corrupt leaders.”
This is the second time when the AAP convener approached the RSS chief, complaining against Modi. Earlier, from his “Janta Ki Adalat” rally on Sunday, the former Delhi chief minister demanded answers from Bhagwat on whether he agrees with the BJP’s politics of “using” central agencies to break up political outfits and topple governments led by opposition parties, and inducting “corrupt” leaders into its fold. His other questions were if the RSS-BJP’s rule on the age for retirement also applied to Modi as it did for leaders like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, and how Bhagwat felt when BJP chief J P Nadda said his party does not need the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the saffron party.
According to experts, Kejriwal was trying to cash in on the difference of opinion between the RSS’ and BJP’s top leadership, Kejriwal’s questions to the RSS chief could be aimed at Hindutva adherents. The questions he asked were political softballs but the implication of bringing Bhagwat into his new political narrative is new and unusual. “If this continues, our democracy will end, our country will end. Parties will keep coming and going, elections will keep coming and going, leaders will keep coming and going, but India will always remain. It is our responsibility to ensure that the tricolor of this country always flies proudly in the sky. In this regard, there are some questions in the minds of the people which I am placing before you. My intention is only to save and strengthen Indian democracy,” he added.
Kejriwal reminded Bhagwat that RSS members pride themselves on being “nationalists and patriots,” while criticising the inclusion of leaders into the BJP whom PM Modi and Amit Shah had previously labelled as “corrupt.” Referring to the BJP’s origins within the RSS, Kejriwal questioned if Bhagwat had ever tried to stop PM Modi from engaging in these “wrong practices.” He also cited Nadda’s statement during the Lok Sabha elections, implying that the BJP had grown bold enough to challenge its “mother” organisation, the RSS.
“Is it right for the country and its democracy to topple elected governments in this manner? Do you or the RSS approve of gaining power by any means of dishonesty,” Kejriwal asked in the letter.
The Former Chief Minister noted that some Opposition leaders, who were labelled corrupt by the Prime Minister and other BJP leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah, were inducted into the BJP on several occasions. Taking a veiled dig at NCP chief Ajit Pawar, the AAP leader said, “on 28 June 2023, in a public speech, Modi accused a party and one of its leaders of a scam of Rs 70 thousand crores. A few days after that, that party was broken and the government was formed with the same leader who was called corrupt till then. He was then made the Deputy Chief Minister. There are many such cases when corrupt leaders of other parties were inducted into the BJP. Did you or RSS workers imagine such a BJP? Don’t you feel pain seeing all this,” he asked.
