Assam CM: RSS tried to divide voters on ethnic lines

Guwahati: After the high-voltage election battle against BJP, chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday lambasted the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for trying to polarize the electorate on ethnic lines.

Gogoi said, "RSS tried to reprise the role it had played in the anti-foreigners movement between 1979 and 1985 through Atal Behari Vajpayee and Arun Shourie. Himanta Biswa Sarma raised the 1951 cut-off year, which is RSS's agenda too. This was a move to polarize the voters on ethnic lines and he has admitted to as much in an interview with a national daily."

"The movement by the All Assam Students' Union (Aasu) was initially a movement against outsiders. RSS stepped in later, through Vajpayee and Shourie, to convert the movement into an anti-foreigner movement. When Aasu leaders were jailed, RSS supplied them with food. The RSS chief Rajendra Singh had not supported the Assam Accord that the Congress government signed with Aasu leadership," Gogoi said.

Former chief minister and former Aasu leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who led the anti-foreigners movement said, "Atal Behari Vajpayee, Yashwant Sinha had participated in the movement like any other individual, including several Congress deserters. But when the decision was taken to launch the movement, no political party was involved. Gogoi's claims are baseless. He should, in fact, explain why an RSS man, Narasimha Rao, became a part of Congress and then the Prime Minister of the country."

Gogoi said research should be undertaken into the movement. "Congress has gained marginally from Sarma's statement as he said it just before the election," he said. "But I'm happy the Aasu leadership has opposed Sarma," he added.