BJP to raise Azad’s RSS-ISIS remarks in Parliament

BJP is set to raise in Parliament on Monday the controversial remarks made by Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad comparing Hindutva outfit, RSS, with terrorist organisation, ISIS.

Party sources said some members will raise the issue and seek Azad’s apology as they insisted that any comparison of RSS with a violent organisation like ISIS was “unacceptable” to them.

That Azad chose an event organised by a Muslim body to attack RSS will be handy for the saffron party, they said, adding that it reflected the “votebank politics” of Congress.

Azad had on Saturday kicked a row by seeking to draw a parallel between RSS and ISIS. “So, we oppose organisations like ISIS, the way we oppose RSS. If those among us in Islam too do wrong things, they are no way less than RSS,” he had said at an event organised by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind.

Hitting back, an RSS spokesperson in Nagaur had said such a comparison showed “intellectual bankruptcy” of Congress and its “unwillingness to deal with fundamentalist and cruel forces like ISIS”. RSS will consider legal action against Azad, he had said.

BJP too jumped to the defence of its ideological mentor, calling it a nationalist organisation and demanding an apology from Azad.

The party had said it was “unfortunate” that Azad had made such comments and asked Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to disassociate from his remarks and take action against him if he does not withdraw them.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Jitendra Singh alleged the Congress leaders were suffering from “RSS phobia” as the party was fast losing its ground.

“RSS is a nationalist organisation, it is not a terrorist organisation, but whenever Congress leaders find the ground slipping beneath their feet, they are haunted by the RSS phobia,” Singh, the Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, said.

“...they get scared of the RSS. You can recall that when Ghulam Nabi Azad lost Parliamentary elections from Udhampur Kathua, he had said the same thing that the RSS made him lose the elections,” Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a function here on Sunday.

“So, we oppose organisations like ISIS, the way we oppose RSS. If those among us in Islam too do wrong things, they are no way less than RSS,” the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha had said during an event organised by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind.

To a question on “intolerance” debate, the Union minister said the country needs freedom from thinkers “who spoil the name of the country”.

“I think in no other country across the world such things would be tolerated. If freedom is needed, it is needed from such thinkers, who invent new formulae (to defame the country),” Singh said.