PATNA: A day after Nitish Kumar pledged to work for making a 'Sangh-Mukt' country, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today dared the Bihar Chief Minister to ban the RSS in Bihar if he had the courage to do so.
"Congress has seen the results of banning the RSS, as the 'patriotic' organization has gained from strength to strength on all occasions it was banned by the Congress governments. If Nitish Kumar has guts, then he should impose ban on the RSS in Bihar....the BJP is ready to meet such a challenge," Modi said in a terse statement.
Modi's hardline assertions came hours after the Chief Minister today reiterated his pledge to work for making India a 'Sangh-Mukt' country and described the outfits as divisive and aimed at confusing the people by spreading rumours.
The senior BJP leader also alleged that by seeking to make the country 'Sangh-Mukt', the Chief Minister was trying to deflect attention from pressing issues like hunger, water scarcity, corruption and collapse in law and order that people were facing in Bihar at present.
"The people of Bihar had given him (Kumar) mandate to address issues like hunger, corruption and crime, but he has started singing a different tune by seeking to free India from the RSS which is a patriotic organization," the former deputy chief minister said.
The senior BJP leader also said Kumar was practising doublespeak on the issue of ideology, saying that he stayed with the saffron party for 17 long years despite the fact that the Sangh Parivar's stand on the Ram Temple issue in Ayodhya, Article 370 and Uniform Civil Code remained consistent during that period.
"The JD(U) national president had no qualms in becoming Bihar Chief Minister thrice and union minister on two occasions with the help of the BJP, but he has suddenly started singing in a different tune to suit his political convenience," the former deputy chief minister said.
It's a matter on record that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani publicly expressed a sense of pride in being RSS activists, but Kumar remained part of the NDA government for years, never raising his concerns about the Sangh Parivar's ideology or activities, he said.
Modi said now Kumar was desperate to fulfil his prime ministerial ambition by cobbling up alliance with anti-BJP parties.