The CPI(M) Himachal state unit today accused RSS and BJP of usurping the legacy of the freedom movement by using the name of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who had banned RSS after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
“It is an irony that the organisation that was banned by Sardar Patel for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi is trying to distort the history and attempting to steal a link to the freedom struggle, but the fact remains that the RSS and its incarnation Jan Sangh were never in favour of the present secular form of Independence and instead wanted India to be a theocratic state,” the CPI(M) unit said in a statement here.
Ridiculing the “Run for Unity” organised by the BJP, the CPI(M) said that the statue of Sardar Patel is being projected as “encapsulating the unity and integrity of India along with its rich culture and heritage, but the mobilisation is akin to collection of bricks for construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya which spread communal hatred and ignited communal violence in which a large number of lives were lost”.
Sardar Patel’s vision of “unity and integrity of India” based on the commonality among the rich diversity that bonds us together, is sought to be undermined by the statue of unity project of the RSS, the party alleged.