Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has slammed “the pretense” of the country’s 75th anniversary of independence, alleging that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, would write a new version of the freedom movement if they could, with Mahatma Gandhi “cast aside.”
The BJP and its ideological mentor, the RSS, made no contribution to the freedom movement, Kumar said in a fiery speech, mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 18-month “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations” announced last year.
“What is the name they used? Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. Amrit. Who was the leader of the Independence Movement? It was Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi). So they could have called it the Bapu Mahotsav,” Mr Kumar said at a National Council meeting of Janata Dal-United in Patna, NDTV reported.
In the video of the address, released recently by the party, Mr Kumar is heard saying: “What are they trying to say? That they were part of the Independence movement? Today the RSS is going strong. They are watching everything. So the RSS was part of the Independence movement? Bapu was murdered. Why? Because he was uniting the Hindus and Muslims… Please keep in mind what kind of work they were involved in. Do they want to say they were involved in the Independence movement? All this is just pretense. If they could, they would just wipe out the true history of the Independence movement and write new things”.
“And be sure to know, a day will come when the Father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, Bapu, will also be cast aside… see what they are doing for the killer of Bapu,” he added.
Kumar made it clear that, despite being a BJP ally at the time, he had stayed away. “I was there with them. So I didn’t say anything. But please understand that I have never supported any of this meaningless nonsense.
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