Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 11 (IANS) The Bhartatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday said the Congress was suffering from “RSS phobia” as it accuses fasting yoga guru Baba Ramdev of being backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

While senior party leader L.K. Advani in his blog compared the accusations of RSS link to those on anti-emergency movement leader Jaiprakash Narayan, party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman dismissed it as the Congress’s “phobia”.

“When Anna Hazare first raised the Lokpal issue he had been clubbed with the RSS. These days, Baba Ramdev’s movement is being dubbed an RSS-sponsored one. Let no one forget that even Jayaprakash Narayan had to hear similar noises when he was leading the anti-emergency movement,” Advani said in his blog.

Elaborating the point, Sitharaman said: “During the emergency Jayaprakash Narayan was first called a CIA agent and later an RSS agent. They called Acharya Kripalani an RSS agent and, during the Bofors (scam) V.P. Singh was called an RSS agent.”

“Congress’s phobia never changes. When they don’t have the right answers to give and they don’t have steps to curb corruption, they resort to this communal argument and push the agenda saying all has been perpetrated by the RSS,” she said.

Advani also said, “Only a cornered government unable to defend its misdeeds before an angry populace and a desperate leadership can behave in this manner”.

The government June 4 night cracked down on supporters of Ramdev at the Ramlila Ground. The police refused him permission for the protest fast, and the yoga guru moved to his own ashram at Haridwar.