BHOPAL: Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh is at it again - targeting the BJP's parent outfit Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) for acts of terrorism.
Tasked by All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandhi with reviving the Congress at the grassroots before Assembly polls in the state, Singh is heading the statewide Ekta Yatra as the head of the recently-constituted State Congress Coordination Committee.
Singh, who was in the Jhabua-Alirajpur region, which borders Gujarat, on Sunday, said all Hindus nabbed for terror-related activities were linked to the RSS.
Flanked by Ratlam-Jhabua MP Kantilal Bhuria and ex-Lok Sabha member Rameshwar Nikhara, Singh said, "Jitne bhi Hindu dharma waale aatankwadi pakde gaye hain, sab Sangh ke karyakarta rahein hain kisi na kisi tarah. Mahatma Gandhi ki hatya karne waala vyakti Nathuram Godse bhi RSS mein rahein hain. Toh ye vichardhara hi nafrat failati hai, aur nafrat se hinsa paida hoti hai. (All those terrorists who are from Hindu religion and have been arrested in the past have been members of the Sangh in some or the other manner. Nathuram Godse, the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, too was part of the RSS. This ideology spreads hatred and hatred gives birth to violence)," said Singh while talking to journalists on Sunday.
Singh's statements came just two days after he said that never in the past had he used the term Hindu terror, but had instead always talked about Sanghi terror, which is spread by the RSS and its allied outfits.
Bhuria, in 2013, had accused RSS men of eloping with innocent tribal girls.
Just a few weeks ago, state Congress chief spokesperson Manak Agrawal too had targeted the RSS, saying that men associated with the ruling BJP and its parent body RSS were often involved in rape cases.
Singh's statement came just a few days after a court in Maharashtra framed charges against Congress president Rahul Gandhi for allegedly making defamatory remarks against the RSS in 2014.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh home minister Bhupendra Singh has claimed that Congress leaders were behind recent incidents of communal tension in the state.
When queried by journalists in Bhopal on Monday about recent incidents of communal tension in Shajapur, Damoh and Tikamgarh districts over the last four days, Singh said primarily it seemed that local issues were behind the incidents, which were controlled by the police in time.
However, he added in the same vein, "Since last month and half, when leaders have been imported by Congress from Delhi for elections in MP, some Congress leaders are trying to disturb communal amity in the state. We've got specific leads about it which are under the police scanner. The culprits won't be spared."
He added that "as Congress doesn't believe in the politics of development, it's somehow trying to create fissures within the society by first fomenting violence in the name of farmers stir and then holding caste specific meetings to further fuel divisions within the society."
Reacting to Singh's remarks, state Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said, "BJP leaders, both within the government and outside are afraid of Congress so much that even in their dreams they only visualize Congress role in each and everything. If those in the state government really have evidence of Congress role in all violent incidents, they should come out with factual evidence before public rather than just making baseless allegations."