Attend RSS shakha first, BJP tells Nitish Kumar

New Delhi: A day after Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar called for a “Sangh-mukt (Sangh-free)” country, the BJP on Sunday advised him to attend the RSS “shakha” for a day to clear his “misconceptions”. Mr Kumar had also said that the BJP and the RSS were a “threat to democracy”.

The Bihar chief minister had told reporters in Patna that Opposition parties needed to unite to fight against the BJP one on one. The BJP, however, stated that the party was unfazed by efforts to form a united front to counter the ruling alliance at the Centre.

“Such attempts to stop the Modi government from working for the development of the country and for the poor will not succeed. Mr Nitish Kumar should focus on Bihar which is back to jungle raj days,” said Mr Shrikant Sharma, national secretary of the BJP.

Seeking to expose the differences within the Opposition, the BJP sought to know from the Congress if Mr Kumar, or party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, would lead a united front against the ruling NDA. “Mr Kumar has called for an RSS-free India. You have stayed with people from Sangh for long. You have had a long coalition with BJP. You have been participating in BJP programmes also. But you have called for a Sangh-free India. It is better you learn and understand the Sangh a little bit,” he said.

Claiming that the critics of the RSS have a lot of misunderstanding, Mr Sharma said, “Only when they attend the shakha (daily meeting) of the RSS will they have a better understanding and their misconceptions will be cleared. Only then will the technical glitches in their (mental) software be fixed.” He added that the RSS has always worked in the national interest. Mr Kumar, after assuming charge of the JD(U) from outgoing chief Sharad Yadav, has been stressing on the need for a formidable alliance against the NDA.