B L Santhosh hits back at Priyank Kharge, says RSS does not need registration
B L Santhosh on Saturday said the RSS did not require registration to establish its existence, asserting that the organisation had worked through the trust of millions of people.
He was reacting to Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge's demand to get the RSS registered.
Addressing an 'Akhand Bharat Sankalp Day' programme organised by the Hindu Jagarana Vedike here, Santhosh claimed "the RSS had stood by Hindus" during Partition and continued to function without formal registration.
"At that time too, the RSS was not registered, and it is not registered even today. Registration does not determine its existence; it is an organisation working through the trust of millions of people," he said.
Santhosh said the country's Independence was secured through the sacrifices of thousands of revolutionaries and freedom fighters and not merely through the Salt Satyagraha or spinning the charkha.
"We attained freedom because lakhs of patriotic young men and women and lakhs of soldiers fought by putting their lives at stake," he said.
Referring to revolutionaries including Madan Lal Dhingra, Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, he said their sacrifices had to be remembered while marking the 80th year of Independence.
"Freedom was not given to us as a gift by someone. The British did not simply give freedom to us," Santhosh said.
He also claimed that a decline in the Hindu population in a region "would weaken its sense of belonging to India".
"Wherever the Hindu population declines, a feeling of anti-nationalism begins to emerge," he alleged.
Referring to Bengaluru's Shivajinagar and Chamarajapet constituencies, Santhosh said no Hindu candidate from any political party had won there for two decades and challenged political parties to field such candidates in the next election.
"Why should Hindus remain a majority? Not to defeat anyone. Hindus should remain a majority because India must remain India," he said.
He attributed the demand for Pakistan to demographic changes and alleged that the Muslim League's political mobilisation eventually led to Partition.
Santhosh also said, "LoP in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge's family faced attacks of the Razakars of Hyderabad and fled to Gulbarga (now Kalaburagi). It was the RSS workers who confronted those Razakars".
"I want to tell the Home Minister (Priyank Kharge): It was not your police, nor your ancestors. It was these RSS workers who confronted the Razakars," Santhosh claimed.
Addressing Priyank Kharge, the BJP leader claimed, "Your family had to flee the village, and your father (Mallikarjun Kharge) had to flee with only the clothes he was wearing".
Santhosh called for a resolve to work towards 'Akhand Bharat'. "The idea of an undivided India is not an administrative dream. It is a cultural dream. It is a nationalist dream," he said.
The BJP leader also said, "Every Indian must have a resolve that the oldest among us should see Akhand Bharat with their own eyes in their lifetime". This is not an impossible idea, he opined.
He recalled how East and West Germany became one, and Vietnam became one.
Santhosh also said, "Israel brought Jews from across the world back to their homeland and developed their country".
He also claimed, "Today India is becoming stronger. Those who think badly of India are becoming insecure wherever they are in the world," Santhosh said.
