BJP's B L Santhosh hits back at Siddaramaiah over PM Modi's praise for RSS

Bengaluru, Aug 16 (PTI) BJP National General Secretary (Organisation) B L Santosh on Saturday took a swipe at Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his praise for the RSS during his Independence Day speech.

Asserting that RSS will remain BJP's ideological, intellectual and methodological foundation, he said most people in the country have accepted the ideology.

The BJP leader was speaking at the “Birth Centenary Memorial Souvenir Release” programme of Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"Our Chief Minister (Siddaramaiah) was blabbering that Gandhi was killed by RSS, as the Prime Minister took the RSS name yesterday. He (PM) took the name there (in Delhi) it seems to have caused a burn to him (CM) here (in Bengaluru)," Santosh said.

Addressing the gathering, he said the PM's statement have not only irked Siddaramaiah, but Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, and West Bengal CM Mamta Bannerjee.

"I want to tell Siddaramaiah through this meeting that RSS will always be the ideological, intellectual and methodological foundation for the BJP. It will always be there. It has entered the mainstream of national life. Most people in the country have accepted the ideology. So, your tweet or that of your allies in Kerala or Tamil Nadu or Bengal can’t disturb people’s minds," he added.

Santosh was responding to Siddaramaiah's attack on PM Modi for describing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as the "world’s biggest NGO", during his address to the nation from the Red Fort on the 79th Independence Day on Friday.

On Friday, Siddaramaiah called the RSS "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." Emphasising that RSS members believe in one life, one mission, one belief, one ideology, Santosh said leaders like Atal ji or Modi don't belong to an organisation, where people think of "switching parties when not made the Chief Minister or conspire to cling to power." "In Karnataka, planning for the future is underway by someone whose ouster is more or less certain. A person like that will never understand what RSS, BJP or Jan Sangh is," he said taking a dig at Siddaramaiah, amid leadership tussle within the ruling Congress in the state. PTI KSU ROH