RSS turns favourite poll-time bugbear for Siddaramaiah, HD Kumaraswamy

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has found itself at the receiving end of a persistent barrage by two former chief ministers Siddaramaiah and H D Kumaraswamy, forcing BJP leaders to spend much of their time defending their ideological parent.

The targeting has intensified in the wake of the October 30 Hanagal and Sindagi bypolls, which may look like rambling that is common during an election. But, the Congress and the JD(S) have their own reasons for attacking the RSS.

Fronting the Congress’ attack on the RSS is Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah.

Earlier this year, Siddaramaiah told party workers that it is the RSS, and not BJP, that the Congress should fight, a narrative handed down by former AICC president Rahul Gandhi who has made it his main offensive.

Siddaramaiah, who has dubbed the NEP as ‘Nagpur Education Policy,’ on Thursday justified his attack on the RSS.

“We’re targeting RSS because of their mistakes,” he said. “RSS people go to a police station in Vijayapura and make policemen wear saffron shawls on Ayudha Puja. Shouldn’t we scold them? Who are they to do that?”

With Kumaraswamy, it started with him referring to journalist Dinesh Narayanan’s book ‘The RSS and the making of the Deep Nation,’ to say that the RSS was trying to control the bureaucracy through IAS and IPS officers it has trained.

Kumaraswamy even wondered if the RSS taught its members to watch pornography at its ‘shakhas’ (camps).

On Thursday, too, Kumaraswamy subtly attacked the RSS. “Those in the BJP trained by the RSS... I can reveal their true colours,” he said. Kumaraswamy and the JD(S) have had their ‘secular’ credentials questioned.

Attacking the RSS may be an attempt to keep the party’s secular tag intact, with the JD(S) having fielded Muslim candidates in Hanagal and Sindagi.

“I don’t see a difference between the Congress and JD(S) in why they are targeting the RSS. There’s an increasing realisation that a lot of what BJP does is linked to RSS,” political analyst Sandeep Shastri said.

“It’s like using a shoulder to snipe at the BJP. The BJP-RSS alliance is out in the open now and that’s why they find it convenient to target the RSS.”

Former Congress minister Priyank Kharge said the political threat caused by the RSS is now real. “If all MLAs don’t wake up, they’ll lose their constituencies in five years because of the RSS,” he said. “All this while, we’ve been fighting the beast’s shadow. We have to fight the beast, which is the RSS.”

A senior RSS functionary from Karnataka said the attacks were not new.

“We are an easy target. But, our image isn’t hurting. Not even a minuscule percentage (of votes) will change with these attacks.”

Shastri concurred that attacking the RSS will not lead to gains in votes of the minorities. “The minority vote is very much linked to how they perceive where their interests lie.”