NEW DELHI: A senior Congress leader has described the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as the “Indian Taliban”, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the organisation during his Independence Day address. According to news agency ANI, BK Hariprasad, a former Rajya Sabha member, criticised the prime minister for lauding the RSS from the Red Fort. “They (RSS) are trying to disturb peace in the country. I will only equate RSS with Taliban. They are Indian Taliban and the PM is appreciating them from Red Fort,” he told ANI.Hariprasad also questioned the RSS’s finances. “Was there any ‘Sanghi’ who participated in the freedom struggle? It’s a shame that RSS is not a registered organisation. We don’t know where they get funds. Any NGO that wants to work in the country should register, as per the Constitution,” he said. The Congress leader further alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and RSS were “masters of twisting history”. He claimed that it was AK Fazlul Huq, then Prime Minister of Bengal, along with Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who first moved a resolution for Partition, while both Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar supported the idea of separate states. His remarks came a day after Modi hailed the RSS as the “biggest NGO in the world”, praising its century-long contribution to nation-building. “With the aim of welfare of Maa Bharati, swayamsevaks dedicated their lives to the welfare of our motherland… In a way, RSS is the biggest NGO of the world. It has a history of 100 years of dedication,” the prime minister said in his Red Fort address. Founded in 1925, the RSS describes itself as a cultural organisation and is the ideological parent of the ruling BJP. Earlier, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi also criticised the RSS, arguing that it never participated in the freedom struggle and has always opposed “inclusive nationalism”.