Ramdev, Anna, 'masks' for RSS, says Congress

Dubbing Ramdev and Anna Hazare as 'masks' of destabilising forces, the Congress on Tuesday alleged a conspiracy of national subversion has been undertaken jointly by the forces of right reaction and left anarchism.

"Over the past 10 months, there have been systematic attempts to undermine the stability of the government", party spokesman Manish Tewari told mediapersons. He said the forces of right reaction and forces of left anarchism have come together in the conspiracy of subversion.

This, he said, was happening because of four reasons -- nervousness of Sangh Parivar after the investigations in Samjhouta Express pointed fingers towards people associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and mounting evidence against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The two other reasons were "desperation" of the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime minister in waiting and the attempt by the Left ideology to derive mileage from the situation.

"Are we going to allow stability of the government and basic structure of the Constitution to be compromised?" he asked.

Talking separately, All India Congress Committee general secretary B K Hariprasad accused veteran L K Advani of "outsourcing" opposition role to Hazare and Ramdev after losing in two elections and said the senior BJP leader was an "old man in a hurry" to become PM.

Launching a blistering attack on Hazare, the Congress leader said he is a "mask of RSS and Sangh Parivar" and said he was no better than Ramdev.  "It is not their satyagraha but the Agrah for Satta (demand for power)," he said.

Tewari said those dreaming of coming of power will have to fight the battle through ballot boxes and not masks. "It will be a great mistake if they think that the battle for power will be won by putting forward the masks," the Congress spokesperson said.

He added that such forces will be met with "appropriate political and governance response". Attacking both Ramdev and Hazare, Tewari said that the attitude of "my way or the highway" does not work and he would not like to comment on "the best combination of ignorance and arrogance".

To a question if the government was convinced that Ramdev was a mask of RSS, why did it send four ministers to receive him at airport, Tewari said that an attempt was made to explain to Ramdev that the issues raised by him are already being addressed by the government.

"Some times sensitive governments try to convince even the masks that the people in whose hands they are playing pose a threat to integrity of the country. No responsible party would like to stake national interest on political considerations," he said.

Maintaining that "any government would obviously try to reason with", Tewari cautioned against interpreting the "magnanimity of government as its weakness".

He said that the government has shown generosity and sensitivity that should be respected when asked to comment on Hazare's attack on the government on the issue of Lokpal.