With the 2019 General Elections and Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections approaching fast, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh appears to believe it is a good idea to raise the ‘Saffron Terror’ bogey. Claiming that he had never spoken of Hindu terror, he claimed to have only spoken of ‘Sangh Terror’ only to use the term ‘Hindu terrorists’ merely days later.
Attacking the RSS, Singh said, “I have never said ‘Hindu terrorism’, I always used the term Sangh terrorism. No terror activity can be linked to religion because no religion supports terrorism.” before going on to add, “Those accused in the Malegaon, Samjhauta Express and Mecca Masjid bomb blasts were influenced by Sangh ideology. RSS spreads violence, hatred and propagates terrorism.” Contradicting himself only a couple of days later, he said, “Jitne bhi Hindu dharma wale aatankwadi pakde gaye hai sab Sangh ke karyakarta rahe hai (All Hindu terrorists caught so far have been RSS members in the past).”
The controversial Congress leader who appears to have made a habit of putting Congress in hazardous positions has received support from Salman Khurshid, another senior Congress leader. The former minister for External Affairs asserted that the statement was made in a specific context. He stated, “I don’t think he takes an exclusive or an isolated view on this, he believes and I know this for sure that all hostility of the nature of extremism is bad. But there would be a specific instance that he must be reflecting upon.”
Meanwhile, former Ministry of Home Affairs, R.V.S. Mani told ANI, “I’ve said this earlier too that there was no official information on Hindu terror till 2010. Even after that, there was no such thing. I’ve written a book which clearly states how Digvijay Singh laid the foundation of Hindu terror and spread it.” “In name of Hindu terror, he saved real terrorists using government resources. Arif Qasmani, the accused Samjhauta Express blast had escaped. In Mecca Masjid blast case, Bilal escaped. I don’t know his political agenda but there’s no Hindu terror,” he added.
Digvijay Singh is no stranger to making ludicrous statements. He was quoted in 2013 as well saying why did all ‘Hindu terrorists’ have RSS links. On one particular occasion, his statement cost the Congress an MLA in Goa. In another instance, he had posted an offensive tweet which contained a photo with objectionable language to target the Prime Minister. He has also used a morphed image to attack BJP President Amit Shah. But perhaps, the most damning incident of all was when he seemed to endorse a book that appeared to blame RSS for the Mumbai Attacks on the 26th of November, 2008.