RSS volunteers (left); Mallikarjun Kharge (right)

NEW DELHI: As Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called for a ban on RSS citing the decision of the then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, BJP hit back recalling comments of both Patel and Mahatma Gandhi praising RSS and accusing Kharge of using the language of fundamentalist Muslim organisations like PFI.Kharge said RSS should be proscribed because it is endangering national unity, underlining Patel banning the right-wing organisation in 1948 after its functionaries “celebrated and distributed sweets” in the wake of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. He accused PM Narendra Modi of disrespecting the “iron man” by removing in 2024 the ban on govt employees from joining RSS, and by removing chapters on Gandhi, Godse, RSS and 2002 Gujarat riots from three NCERT books. He said, “My personal view is that RSS should be banned. If Modi & Amit Shah eulogise the ills that Patel put out in public (before banning RSS), then it should be banned. The problems of law & order are because of RSS & BJP.”BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said Patel had described RSS as an organisation of patriots days before Gandhi’s assassination in Jan 1948 & echoed a similar view in a letter to its then chief M S Golwalkar in Nov 1948.” Kharge said Patel wrote to Golwalkar and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee about the decision to ban RSS. “RSS speeches are full of communal poison… which led to Gandhi’s killing. RSS people rejoiced and distributed sweets… We have no other option but to ban RSS,” he said, adding, “These are Patel’s words. But those who killed Gandhi and think ill of Gandhi, they are telling us that Congress does not remember Patel. The two Gujarat netas (Modi and Shah) say this. They must tell what they did for the country.” Another BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the Kapur Commission, which had probed the conspiracy behind Gandhi’s killing, had absolved RSS and that the Supreme Court’s verdict on similar lines is also in public domain. He said several Congress leaders, including Indira Gandhi, have spoken positively of RSS and noted that Pranab Mukherjee was also full of praise for it after he as the then President of India visited its headquarters.