The Congress today slammed former RSS chief K. Sudarshan’s “vulgar” comments about Sonia Gandhi and warned the party couldn’t be blamed if the reaction turned violent as it mounted a nationwide counter-attack against the Sangh parivar.
The livid response came a day after Sudarshan had branded the Congress chief a CIA agent who “conspired” to kill both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
The comments, during an interaction with journalists in Bhopal, were published by a Hindi daily.
The RSS distanced itself from the diatribe, saying it didn’t represent its views. “Only Sudarshan can clarify why he spoke like that,” Sangh spokesperson Ram Madhav said. “We are concerned about the reports sourced to him.”
The BJP said the Congress chief was a “democratically elected leader” and “chairperson of a ruling coalition” and deserved “respect”.
“Whatever political differences we have with her must be addressed within an accepted, democratic framework and behaviour,” party spokesperson Tarun Vijay said.
The Congress has asked all its state units to launch a protest against the Sangh parivar. “We want a strong protest, strong enough to ensure that such outfits don’t open their mouths for such comments in the future,” general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said.
Dwivedi asked Congress workers not to indulge in violence, but warned that “such vulgar and untruthful remarks can incite our partymen”.
“Nobody should blame the Congress if any untoward development takes place,” the chief party spokesperson added.
Dwivedi read out the whole report at a specially called media conference, shown live by many television channels. Congress members raised the issue in Parliament, too.
An emotionally charged Dwivedi said Sudarshan had accused Sonia of conspiring “to kill Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi (and that) she was a CIA agent”.
The former sarsanghchalak also alleged that Sonia was an illegitimate child who was born when her father was in jail, which is why she mentions her year of birth as 1946 instead of 1944. Sudarshan also said Sonia chose not to take the bullet-riddled Indira Gandhi to a hospital close by and ensured that Rajiv didn’t have Z-plus security when he faced the murderous attack.
“The people should decide themselves whether such public discourse could be tolerated or not. Can anything else be more vulgar, bigger lies?” he fumed.
Congress units in many states have already launched demonstrations, while those in others have planned protests tomorrow. Asked if the party was contemplating legal action, Dwivedi said “those things will be decided later. But we want the RSS and the political party that draws sustenance from it to ponder over these remarks and respond to them.”
Sangh sources said Sudarshan had of late been meeting known Sonia-baiters. “He is very impressionable and must have been influenced by them,” a source said.
The former RSS chief had been a thorn in the flesh for Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he was Prime Minister. Riled by Sudarshan’s attacks on his aides, Vajpayee used his political skills to have Sudarshan banished from Delhi to Nagpur. Little was heard of Sudarshan after that.
The livid response came a day after Sudarshan had branded the Congress chief a CIA agent who “conspired” to kill both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
The comments, during an interaction with journalists in Bhopal, were published by a Hindi daily.
The RSS distanced itself from the diatribe, saying it didn’t represent its views. “Only Sudarshan can clarify why he spoke like that,” Sangh spokesperson Ram Madhav said. “We are concerned about the reports sourced to him.”
The BJP said the Congress chief was a “democratically elected leader” and “chairperson of a ruling coalition” and deserved “respect”.
“Whatever political differences we have with her must be addressed within an accepted, democratic framework and behaviour,” party spokesperson Tarun Vijay said.
The Congress has asked all its state units to launch a protest against the Sangh parivar. “We want a strong protest, strong enough to ensure that such outfits don’t open their mouths for such comments in the future,” general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said.
Dwivedi asked Congress workers not to indulge in violence, but warned that “such vulgar and untruthful remarks can incite our partymen”.
“Nobody should blame the Congress if any untoward development takes place,” the chief party spokesperson added.
Dwivedi read out the whole report at a specially called media conference, shown live by many television channels. Congress members raised the issue in Parliament, too.
An emotionally charged Dwivedi said Sudarshan had accused Sonia of conspiring “to kill Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi (and that) she was a CIA agent”.
The former sarsanghchalak also alleged that Sonia was an illegitimate child who was born when her father was in jail, which is why she mentions her year of birth as 1946 instead of 1944. Sudarshan also said Sonia chose not to take the bullet-riddled Indira Gandhi to a hospital close by and ensured that Rajiv didn’t have Z-plus security when he faced the murderous attack.
“The people should decide themselves whether such public discourse could be tolerated or not. Can anything else be more vulgar, bigger lies?” he fumed.
Congress units in many states have already launched demonstrations, while those in others have planned protests tomorrow. Asked if the party was contemplating legal action, Dwivedi said “those things will be decided later. But we want the RSS and the political party that draws sustenance from it to ponder over these remarks and respond to them.”
Sangh sources said Sudarshan had of late been meeting known Sonia-baiters. “He is very impressionable and must have been influenced by them,” a source said.
The former RSS chief had been a thorn in the flesh for Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he was Prime Minister. Riled by Sudarshan’s attacks on his aides, Vajpayee used his political skills to have Sudarshan banished from Delhi to Nagpur. Little was heard of Sudarshan after that.
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