Bapu’s mistake led to the Partition of India, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar said during an event in Jaipur. He added that Mahatma Gandhi should have picked Sardar Patel, and Subhas Chandra Bose as “aide-de-camp” instead of Jinnah and Nehru and this would have avoided the division of Bharat. The statement has sparked a controversy as Congress leaders like Gaurav Gogoi and Digvijaya Singh questioned the RSS’s stand on Mr. Kumar’s statement.
Mr. Kumar was speaking during an event organised by the Jansankhya Samadhan Foundation in Jaipur on Saturday where the senior RSS Pracharak expressed regret over a decision of Mahatma Gandhi.
“India got freedom 75 years ago but in the form of partition. If Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) had not chosen Jinna (Muhammad Ali Jinnah) and Nehru (Pandit Jawaha lal Nehru) as aide-de-camp for talks with the British, India would not have been divided. Had Sardar Patel, Subhas Chandra Bose or Maharishi Aurobindo been the aide-de-camps in their place, India would not have been partitioned. Bapu’s small mistake split India into two pieces,” Mr Kumar said.
Reacting to Mr. Kumar’s statement, MP and deputy leader in the Lok Sabha (Congress) Gaurav Gogoi took to Twitter and wrote that he is not surprised to see this remark from Mr. Kumar.
“This is what Nathuram Godse also believed before he assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. It is this ideology which pulled the trigger on Father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi,” he wrote.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh criticised Mr. Kumar on social media and said that he is the same leader whose name was registered in the FIR of Ajmer bomb blast.
“Mohan Bhagwat ji, is Indresh Kumar ji a member of RSS or related to you? On his statement on Gandhiji, would you like to say something?,” Mr. Singh added.
