Salman Khurshid stated Congress opposes the RSS and will not follow its model, using a ‘Sholay’ analogy to reject building a society on fear. His comments came after Digvijaya Singh praised the RSS’s organisational structure.
Congress Rejects RSS Model of Strength
Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Sunday said the party does not want to follow the path of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) or the BJP and instead aims to build a society and an organisation free from what he described as the flaws of the RSS. His remarks came amid an ongoing political debate sparked by Congress leader Digvijaya Singh’s comments about the RSS and its organisational strength.
‘Don’t Want a Gabbar Society’
Khurshid, while criticising the RSS, used an analogy from the film Sholay to explain his point. He said that just as fear was used in the movie to silence people by invoking the name of Gabbar Singh, society should not be shaped by fear or intimidation. “A dacoit is also strong. So, would you tell your child that you also became a dacoit? Do you remember the movie Sholay? The one where it was said that ‘dur dur tak kabhi koi bacha rota hai to uski maa kehti hai ki chup hoja nahi to gabbar aa jaega.’ So, do you want to create a society where, out of fear of Gabbar, you won’t even allow children to cry?” he said.
Khurshid stressed that the Congress does not wish to follow the RSS model, asserting that the party stands for a different set of values. “We don’t want to strengthen ourselves in the same way that the RSS is strong. We oppose the RSS. Digvijay Singh and Rahul Gandhi oppose the RSS, and in place of the RSS, we want to create a society and an organisation that doesn’t have the flaws that we believe the RSS has,” he said.
Debate Sparked by Digvijaya Singh’s Post
His remarks come after Digvijaya Singh yesterday shared a black-and-white photograph from the 1990s, found on social question-and-answer website Quora, showing a young Narendra Modi seated on the floor near senior BJP leader LK Advani at an event in Gujarat. In a post shared on X, Singh noted that individuals who once worked at the grassroots level could rise through the organisational hierarchy to become Chief Minister and eventually Prime Minister. He described this as the “power of organisation”, while tagging senior Congress leaders, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, MPs Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jairam Ramesh, and the official handles of the Congress. PM Modi was also tagged in that post.
“I found this picture on the Quora site. It is very impressive. In what way did the grassroots swayamsevak of RSS and the worker of Jan Sangh @BJP4India sit on the floor at the feet of leaders and become the Chief Minister of the state and the Prime Minister of the country? This is the power of the organisation. Jai Siya Ram. @INCIndia @INCMP@kharge @RahulGandhi @priyankagandhi @Jairam_Ramesh @narendramodi,” Singh’s X post read.
Digvijaya Singh later clarified that he had praised only the RSS’s organisational structure, not its ideology, and that he remains opposed to the RSS and PM Modi. (ANI)
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)