NEW DELHI, 18 August 2004 — Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh has rejected the Rashtriya Swamsewak Sangh’s (RSS) demand for an apology for suggesting the organization’s involvement in Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination and dismissed reports that he was “posturing” for the prime minister’s job.
“As a Congress party worker it has been an article of faith for me to fight against all communal forces, which I have been doing for the last 45 years,” he said.
“The question of my submitting a written apology to the Sangh Parivar, therefore, simply does not arise. I am prepared for any sacrifice that I may be called upon to make and will treat it as a great honor for myself,” Singh said in a written statement circulated at a press conference here.
In response, RSS yesterday said that it will initiate legal proceedings against Arjun Singh “very soon.”
RSS spokesman Ram Madhav said, “We will file a case. We will be initiating the legal process very soon”.
Commenting on the legal notice served on him by the RSS Delhi unit on his statement regarding the RSS, he said, “This matter will be dealt with by my legal adviser in the appropriate manner and forum”.
However, the Congress said a legal notice would not change the historical facts including the ban imposed on the RSS by the then Home Minister Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel after the assassination of Gandhi in 1948.
To a specific query whether the Congress favored a ban on the RSS, Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said he was not saying that. “The fact is that it was the philosophy of hatred and bigotry propounded by the RSS which led to the killing of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse”, he said.
He alleged that the RSS as an organization had not subscribed to the constitution, which is liberal, secular and democratic and “if they do not believe in the constitution, law and democracy, what can we say?” He asked the RSS leadership to come out with the list of accused in the Gandhi assassination case and let everybody know who all were involved in it.
