On Thursday (4th January), a court in Thane city of Maharashtra ordered Congress leader Digvijaya Singh to furnish a written apology for insulting former RSS chief MS Golwalkar, also known as Golwalkar Guruji, in one of his posts on social media platform X. The Magistrate P Suryawanshi categorically mentioned that Digvijay Singh should sign the apology letter himself. RSS member Vivek Champanerkar had filed a defamation case against Digvijay Singh who posted a contentious post on the former RSS chief on 7th July 2023.
Vivek Champanerkar lodged a civil defamation case against Digvijaya Singh in the Thane Magistrate Court, seeking compensation of one rupee in response to a defamatory social media post made by the Congress leader. In his plea, Champanerkar contended, “Digvijaya Singh’s post had caused great disrepute to the plaintiff’s organisation i.e. the RSS, and hurt Champanerkar deeply personally, so Singh is liable to be prosecuted and punished for the offence punishable under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as to be tried for tortuous act of defamation.”
The court issued a summons to Digvijaya Singh on 6th October 2023, but he did not appear in the court. At the subsequent hearing on Thursday (4th January), the attorney representing Digvijaya Singh contended that the contentious social media post had been removed. Therefore, he argued, there was no justification for continuing the defamation lawsuit against the Congress politician.
Attorneys Aditya Mishra and Surabhi Pandey represented Vivek Champanerkar and objected to the dismissal of the case unless accompanied by a written apology from Digvijaya Singh. Following the arguments from both parties on Thursday, Magistrate P Suryawanshi decided to postpone the case’s hearing until 29th January. However, he instructed Singh to submit a personally signed apology letter to the court.
On 7th July 2023, Digvijaya Singh wrote in his tweet, “What was Guru Golwalkar ji’s view on Dalits, OBCs and Muslims and national rights over water, forest, and land?” Along with this, a picture was shared in it and some controversial text was written on it. The image claims that the quotes are taken from Golwalkar’s book ‘We and Our Nationhood Identified’.
According to the text written on the picture, Golwalkar has written in his book, “Whenever power comes to hand, first hand over the government’s wealth, state land and forest to your two-three trusted rich people. Make 95% of the people beggars, after that power will not go out of hand for seven lives.”
The image further claims that in 1940, Golwalkar had said, “I am ready to serve the British all my life, but I don’t want the freedom that gives equal rights to Dalits, OBCs, and Muslims.” In Indore, advocate Rajesh Joshi had also lodged an FIR against the Madhya Pradesh Congress leader in this regard.