BJP condemns Digvijaya Singh's remark on Hindu terror and RSS, says Congress thinks 'India is Indira'

Days after senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh drew flak for his remarks linking Hindu terror and RSS, BJP hit out at him saying that the “manner” in which those from Congress are speaking signifies the party’s “ignorance” and “deep-rooted conspiracy”. “In the last few days, Singh has repeatedly made statements about the words ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hinduism’ which are disdainful and insulting,” BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said at a press conference on Monday. He claimed that despite being a veteran Congress leader, Singh has an “infallible” knowledge. “He sees ‘ji’ in Osama, ‘messiah of peace’ in Zakir Naik, ‘saheb’ in Hafiz Saeed and claim that RSS was behind 26/11 attack and not Hafiz Saeed. His (Digvijaya Singh) and his party’s understanding and conspiracy both are clearly exposed,” Trivedi said.  In 2016,  Singh had come under fire  after a video emerged of him sharing the dais with controversial Islamic preacher Naik. [caption id="" align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. AFP[/caption] Last week, Singh accused the RSS of promoting terrorism in the country. “All Hindu terrorists who have ever been caught have an association with the RSS in some way or the other,” he had said. The BJP spokesperson alleged that Singh had also recently rejected “Hindu” as a word. He said: “I want to ask Congress president Rahul Gandhi if ‘Hindu’ is not a word, then on what basis did Congress communications in-charge Randeep S Surjewala call you a _janeu dhari Hindu_ ?” He lashed out at the Congress for not apologising for their slogan during Emergency. “At the time of Emergency, the then Congress president had come up with the slogan, ‘India is Indira, Indira is India’. For those who understand Hindus and Hindutva, the country is ‘Bharat Mata’. But for Congress, which asks what these terms mean, India is Indira. Till now they have not apologised for this slogan,” Trivedi said. The BJP is observing 25 June — the day when Emergency was imposed in 1975 by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi—as ‘black day’. The Emergency refers to a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977. On the midnight of 25-26 June 1975, several prominent political leaders of the Opposition parties were arrested. In a Facebook post — the first of the three-part series titled The Emergency revisited, Union minister Arun Jaitley recalled on Sunday how more than four decades ago the Indira Gandhi government had imposed a “phoney” Emergency.

“It was a phoney emergency on account of proclaimed policy that Indira Gandhi was indispensable to India and all contrarian voices had to be crushed. The constitutional provisions were used to turn democracy into a constitutional dictatorship,” said Jaitley. With inputs from PTI