‘Congress can’t prove a single charge against RSS’
BJP President Rajnath Singh is a quintessential Hindi heartland politician more adept at handling the cadre and managing party affairs than delivering smart lines on television. The dhoti-clad Thakur from Bhabhaura in Chadauli, eastern Uttar Pradesh is a calm, pragmatic figure who wrested a second term as BJP president as smoothly as he has found acceptability in a faction-ridden party. In an interview to Poornima Joshi, Singh talked about the prospect of the Congress’ decimation, the terror charge against the RSS and his hopes for the BJP getting a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own. Excerpts: The Congress has managed to keep you out of power for 10 years. Beyond all the hype around the BJP campaign, do you have any niggling doubts? Are you at all worried? (Laughs) The Congress will score less than 90 seats in the general elections this year. Their game is up. And the BJP? The seats arithmetic is still against you. You don’t have a presence in the South, the East… You do not have to worry on our account. We will hit our target. And what is that? To get over 272 seats, what else? That is our target. On your own? This sounds like a repeat of M Venkaiah Naidu’s boast in 2004 that the BJP will get 300 seats on its own. Can you not feel that disenchantment against the Congress? People are fed up of their corruption, mismanagement, policy paralysis and, most importantly, their lack of sincerity. Let me give you an example. They have been talking about Telangana for 10 years. And they choose to bring the relevant legislation in the very last session of this Lok Sabha! In the intervening period, they made commitments to the TRS, they made a promise to the people of Andhra Pradesh. And they just sat on it. Even now, when they are claiming to introduce the legislation, they let their Chief Minister agitate on the streets and their MPs are allowed to give notices for no-confidence motion against their own government. What sort of absurdity is this? Can a Chief Minister rebel against his own party without even a threat of disciplinary action? And why have they not suspended their MPs? Do you think people do not understand the lack of sincerity and cynicism? And let me not even talk about the misuse of institutions, intelligence agencies and unwarranted and underhand attacks on the Opposition. Are you talking about the Hindutva terror cases? But they are being independently investigated. Aseemanand’s revelations about the RSS’ terror connections have been reported by a news magazine. This is all false propaganda. The Congress has been spreading lies about the RSS for the past 10 years. Let me ask you a question — if there was even a shred of truth in any of it, do you think they would have spared us? They have been trying to link the Sangh with terror cases ever since the UPA was formed. Why have they not been able to prove it? I challenge the Congress to prove a single charge against the RSS. Let them give evidence. The RSS is a cultural, nationalist organisation; we are patriots. Will this have any implication for the elections? As I said, the BJP will form the next government. We will get 272 seats. Then you do not need the allies, right? The fact that you do not have any right now should not bother you. Politics is the art of winning friends. We have full faith in our friends and allies who have stood by us. Together, we will form the next government. And just so you do not start spinning a yard about us being friendless, let me assure you we will find more companions. You mean you will find more allies. That looks difficult before the elections? The possibility (before the polls) cannot be ruled out. The problem is that you always underestimate our popularity. (Source:https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/politics/congress-cant-prove-a-single-charge-against-rss/article5674413.ece#)