[Reader-list] All Muslims are not terrorists...

[Aditya Raj Baul]

...and neither are all Hindus.

*


RSS initiates purge to counter charges of ‘Hindu terror’

Nistula Hebbar
Posted: Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 0151 hrs IST
Updated: Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 0151 hrs IST
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/RSS-initiates-purge-to-counter-charges-of--Hindu-terror-/644098/

New Delhi: The arrest of two people, allegedly associated with the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in connection with the Ajmer blast
case appears to have had a cascading effect within the organisation.
Embarrassed by these arrests, the organisation has carried out a purge
of a sort, removing two activists from Orissa, one from Jharkhand and
one from Madhya Pradesh for alleged links with Hindu extremist outfits
as late as last week.

The senior leadership of the RSS and BJP went into a huddle on Tuesday
in Delhi, discussing how best to minimise damage from these incidents
and how to combat the fall-out of these events. BJP leaders Arun
Jaitley, Ananth Kumar, and Rajnath Singh and the RSS functionary in
the BJP, Ram Lal, met with senior RSS pracharaks late on Tuesday.

“The news of ‘Hindu terror’ is very disturbing, since the RSS has
suffered when militant strains have taken over, as it happened in 1948
with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. The RSS was banned and is
still not able to counter the stain of the Mahatma’s murder,” said a
top source in the BJP. When reports of ‘Hindu terror’ first came
around after Special Task Force chief Hemant Karkare arrested Sadhvi
Pragya and members of Abhinav Bharat in the Malegaon case, the RSS and
BJP had taken an attacking position. They had attacked Karkare’s
integrity as a policeman as well. But now, with more and more evidence
pointing to RSS affiliates’ involvement in other acts of terror, the
organisation feels it has to take action.

The BJP leadership—often placed in a publicly embarrassing position
because of revelations like the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya in the
Malegaon blast case—had been urging the RSS to comprehensively purge
the organisation of these elements. “There are certain elements who
lend themselves to such activities. They should be removed. The RSS
holds the same position,” said a leader.

“The problem lies with the fact that the RSS has grown over the years
and so have some of the affiliate organisations, which preach
Hindutva, but keep the exact nature of their activities secret. Some
of their public postures are the same as the RSS, but that does not
mean that the organisation condones the violence,” said the source.