Advani Differs with Jaswant; Says Patel Banned RSS under Nehru’s Pressure
Senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha LK Advani has said that it was under Jawaharlal Nehru’s pressure that Sardar Patel banned RSS.
In reference to Jaswant Singh’s statement that Patel had put a ban on RSS and how was he core to BJP’s ideology, Advani said that it was at Nehru’s behest that Patel took the step.
“One month later, Patel wrote a letter to Nehru saying that there is not an iota of evidence against RSS. Jaswant is saying only half of what had happened and not the other half,” Advani was quoted as saying by Sushma Swaraj.
Besides, Advani reaffirmed that Patel’s accomplishment of unifying more than 700 odd princely states was a “super human effort and a spectacular achievement”.
“It was not possible by an ordinary person. Jaswant Singh tried to denigrate Patel,” he added.
Terming Jaswant Singh’s expulsion from the party as a “painful but necessary” decision, Advani today answered Jaswant’s criticism of Sardar Vallabhbai Patel saying that the firm Home Minister had banned the RSS at Jawaharlal Nehru’s behest.
“It is mentally painful to expel somebody who has been with you for the past 30 years but what he wrote was against the basic ideology of the party,” he said in his valedictory address at the concluding day of the three-day ‘Chintan Baitak’ in Shimla.
In his first comments on the party’s decision taken on Monday, he told top BJP leaders attending the conclave that he felt that the expulsion of the Darjeeling MP as “painful but a necessary” action.
