BENGALURU: Slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) the biggest NGO in the world in his Independence Day speech at Red Fort in New Delhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Modi spoke like an RSS pracharak, and not like the leader of the nation which has a population of 140 crore.
Expressing his displeasure on his official ‘X’ handle, CM said RSS is not an NGO, “it is the world’s biggest for-political profit, for-hate, and most divisive organisation -- unregistered, non tax-paying, and conspiring to pit Indians against each other. The Red Fort is not a BJP rally stage. It is a place of historical significance where the PM must speak for every Indian -- not advertise his party’s parent organisation...”
Modi’s praise was nothing but a desperate move to appease the RSS, at a time when he is politically weakened and reliant on its backing for his own future, Siddaramaiah commented.
He said the PM has lost the moral right to speak for the whole country when he endorses an organisation that had no role in the freedom struggle, opposed the tricolour, and has worked against the idea of an equal and inclusive India. “This is the same organisation whose ideology inspired the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and which has been banned three times in independent India for spreading hate,’’ he added.
He said Independence Day is a time to honour those who united India. Instead, PM Modi glorified a force that thrives on polarisation, had no role in Independence, and whose forefathers even collaborated with the British.
The CM also stated that India’s freedom was won by people of every religion, caste and language, united under the tricolour. “No organisation is bigger than that unity or above the Constitution. And no Prime Minister - no matter the power he wields - can turn Independence Day into a tribute to those who divide India and dream of ruling it in the spirit of its former colonisers. He should be ashamed of undermining the very idea of India from the ramparts of the Red Fort,’’ he stated.