Anna didn't acknowledge workers' support in his fight: RSS

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Sunday slammed Gandhian Anna Hazare for failing to acknowledge that its workers had played an "active role" in his nationwide crusade against corruption last year, though the Sangh itself was not part of the civil society agitation.

"It is a fact that the Sangh workers in individual capacity did play an active role in the anti-corruption crusade by the civil society headed by Hazare.... It baffles me as to why the former did not acknowledge the fact," RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat told the media.

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Bhagwat, however, clarified that the RSS was not part of the civil society agitation on the corruption issue even as it shared similar views and had adopted a resolution on the issue in March last year.

The RSS leader said that corruption in the political system could not be addressed merely by taking stringent action against corrupt public servants.

Other remedies like electoral reforms and making the system transparent and accountable should also be considered to usher in good governance in the country.

Bhagwat clarified that it was not the RSS' decision to make Nitin Gadkari the BJP national president but it had merely played the role of a felicitator when senior BJP leaders had met him to find a replacement for Rajnath Singh in the post-parliamentary poll debacle of 2009.

"Some senior BJP leaders had called me to discuss the future of the party leadership following debacle in 2009 parliamentary polls....the name of a number of leaders were discussed for the BJP president's post with Gadkari being among the names," the RSS chief told reporters.

"It was the BJP leaders' call to select Gadkari as the BJP president," he said adding the Sangh had merely played the role of a facilitator.

The RSS flayed people giving communal colour to those accused being tried in terror cases and said that comments should be made only after charges against such persons could be proved in the courts first. "There is no such thing as Hindu militants....prove the charges first before giving communal colour to terror cases accused," the RSS sarsanghchalak said.

He was responding to a question eliciting his stand on the accusations being made by critics linking the Samjhauta Express and Malegaon blast cases accused to upsurge of Hindu militancy.

Disapproving Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray's regional brand of politics, Bhagwat said he had publicly denounced in the past the latter's cryptic comments against north Indians as he felt that the country and Mumbai/Maharashtra belonged to all and nobody has a right to create wedges among the people on the lines of caste, religion or region.

In an apparent shift in its policy, the RSS has decided to put upfront its leaders and workers to take the route of mass media to spread its ideology and support base across the country.

The Sangh has decided to identity people within its ranks to articulate its views and programmes through media, Bhagwat told reporters.

The committed RSS workers will not only fan out across the country to propagate its ideology and programmes, but will have regular interface with the media, he said. "Till now, we have been doing our works quietly, but it was felt that it will be better if the medium of media too should be used to spread our ideology and rope in more people with us," he said.