By TwoCircles.net Staff Writer,
New Delhi: Feeling the heat growing around and sensing the noose getting tightened round the neck of some of its leaders for their alleged involvement in terrorist activities, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has turned into self-correction mode, and approached Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its political front, for help.
Playing with fire: Bajrang Dal activists protesting in Jammu on June 30th, 2010. [Photo: Jammu News Agency]
RSS is believed to be tightening up its gates to stop fringe elements from getting in “as it feels its matrix is weakening and it’s screening system, the shakhas, were being bypassed,” says an NDTV report.
RSS connection with Hindutva terror came to light with the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur in the Malegaon blast case. Thakur had both RSS and BJP connection as in one photo published in the media soon after her arrest in the Malegaon case in 2008 she was seen sitting with the then BJP president Rajnath Thakur. However, RSS denied its connection with terror activities, rather some of its leaders and BJP openly supported Sadhvi. With days and months going and as honesty prevailed in some terror probes, some more people with RSS connection were arrested in such cases. But RSS continued to remain in denial mode.
But when some months back RSS pracharaks Devendra Gupta and Lokesh Sharma were arrested in Rajasthan in connection with the Ajmer Dargah blast of 2007, the RSS decided not to protect them in any way. What has worried RSS much now is the latest revelation and development in the Mecca Masjid blast case.
CBI has told the Hyderabad court that the same Hindutva terror module involved in the Ajmer Dargah blast was behind the Mecca Masjid blast during Juma prayers in 2007. What has now forced RSS into self-correction mode is questioning by CBI of some RSS leaders in UP in connection with the case.
According to media reports, two senior RSS functionaries from Uttar Pradesh — Ashok Beri and Ashok Varshney – have been interrogated by the federal investigation agency. Beri is ‘kshetriya pracharak’ in charge of the RSS operations in half of Uttar Pradesh. He is a member of the Sangh’s central committee. Varshney is a senior ‘prant pracharak’ based in Kanpur, where on August 25, 2008 two Bajrang Dal activists were killed when a bomb went off accidentally while they were engaged in bomb-making.
As corrective measures, RSS is now conducting careful internal audits to identify men who could have a terror connect. Some pracharaks in four states have been reportedly relieved of their duties.
Part of the damage control exercise, RSS leaders have met top BJP leaders in Delhi twice over last three days. It has sought help from BJP to clean up its tarnished image. Between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning two important meetings were held in the national capital, attended by senior RSS and BJP leaders. Hindutva terror was the subject of discussion. The first meeting was held at BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s residence. The second meeting in the RSS Jhandewalan complex was attended by the former BJP president, Rajnath Singh, and senior leaders Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar and Ram Lal. Madan Das Devi and others from the RSS were present.
According to media reports, top RSS leaders told the BJP top brass including Nitin Gadkari to counter the Hindutva terror charges politically.
It is interesting to note that hours after the RSS-BJP meeting Gadkari seems to have started working on the RSS suggestion: Counter the Hindutva terror charges politically. Speaking at a BJP rally in Dehradun last night, BJP president Gadkari taunted the Congress over the delay in hanging Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, and asked Congress if Guru was its “son-in-law” that it is delaying in hanging him.