In the videos posted online recently, Minister in the Modi cabinet compares RSS with SIMI, sympathises with the plight of Kashmiri and Muslims who are easily labelled as ‘terrorists’.
By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: Old video clips of Consumer Affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan have surfaced that can put him in embarrassing position. Three video clips of Paswan have been uploaded on a YouTube channel, where he is heard comparing the RSS and its off-shoots with SIMI and demanding ban on them.
The video clips are from a speech of Paswan, delivered during a programme called by the civil society organisations one January 29, 2011 at the launch of a report, “What it Means To Be a Muslim in India Today,” brought together by the People’s tribunal on the atrocities committed against the Minorities in the name of fighting terrorism and the National Meet on the Status of Muslims in Contemporary India by ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy). The video clips have been uploaded on the YouTube channel of BeyondHeadlines.
In one Video clip, Paswan directly compares RSS, and its sister organisations VHP, Bajrang Dal, Ram Sene, Abhinav Bharat with the banned SIMI. He also raises the issue of how RSS has not yet denounced Nathu Ram Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. He says that he beehives that if SIMI is dangerous, RSS is equally dangerous. “RSS and SIMI are one,” he says in the video, demanding to know why the government has taken dual stands on them. He urges the government to ban RSS and all its off-shoots as well.
In another clip, Paswan mentions about Ajmer Shrine blast, Malegaon blast, Samjhauta blast, Mecca Masjid blast, and names the likes of Colonel Purohit, Pragya Thakur, etc. and points to how several off-shoots of the RSS were involved in different terrorist attacks across the country.
In the third video clip, Paswan appears very sympathetic towards Muslims and Kashmiris and suggests that they are being victimised. He reminds that how during partition Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad had urged Muslims to stay in India, and adds that what Muslims expect from the state is dignified living.
Ram Vilas Pasawn has the distinction of being part of all the alliances that has come to power at the centre, namely United Front, National Democratic Alliance led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, United Progressive Alliance as well as the current government of the NDA led by Narendra Modi.
It is interesting to note that Paswan had parted ways from the NDA purportedly after the 2002 Gujarat riot and since then presented himself as an ardent champion of secularism. In 2014, however, sensing the reverse wave, he immediately switched side and contested election as part of the the BJP led NDA.