Madhya Pradesh home minister Bala Bachchan on Wednesday said the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had provided security to former RSS chief KS Sudarshan and not to the RSS office. The home minister clarified the issue amid controversy over withdrawal of police security from the RSS state headquarters in Bhopal.

Police personnel were withdrawn from the RSS office called ‘Samidha’ on Monday resulting in the BJP accusing the Congress government of targeting its fountain head. As criticism mounted, the security was restored within 24 hours after Congress candidate from Bhopal, Digvijaya Singh, expressed his displeasure over the development. Chief Minister Kamal Nath also issued instructions to restore security to the RSS office.

Home minister Bala Bachchan said the security had been withdrawn as the Election Commission of India needed more security personnel in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. However, after it was brought to the notice of the chief minister, he ordered the security to be restored.

He said the BJP was unnecessarily making an issue about it and attacking the government. The RSS itself had made it clear that it did not have any problem whether the security was withdrawn or maintained. “If we had any wrong intention, the government would have withdrawn the security in the past three months,” he said.

RSS regional head (kshetra prachar pramukh), Narendra Kumar Jain, said it was the (then) state government’s decision to provide police security at Samidha. The government withdrawing the security may have been based on its observation that security was not needed any more.

State BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said the word ‘RSS’ seemed to be haunting the Congress. Earlier, the Congress had targeted the RSS in its manifesto for state assembly elections. Later, the security was withdrawn from the RSS office.

After KS Sudarshan ceased to be the RSS chief in 2009, the RSS office in Bhopal was renovated and a lift was installed in the building for him as he stayed there. He died in September 2012 in Raipur. The security had been provided for him.

This was the second time in the past 5 months, when the Congress has been compelled to be on the back foot on RSS related issues.

In the run-up to the state assembly elections held in November last year, Congress in its manifesto announced that it would put a ban on RSS shakhas on government land and would withdraw the government order lifting a ban on participation of government employees in RSS shakhas. However, after the Congress came back to power, the government has not issued any such order.

First Published: Apr 03, 2019 18:25 IST