AGENCIES / WEB DESK
The Congress Party Thursday slammed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) after a ‘former pracharak (worker)’ claimed in an affidavit that he participated in a bomb-making camp a year before the 2004 Lok Sabha election and was asked to take ‘responsibility for carrying out maximum bomb blasts in various parts in the country’. Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera shared a copy of the affidavit on Twitter.
The affidavit has not been verified independently and neither the RSS nor the Bharatiya Janata Party has commented on the allegation yet.
Congress leader Khera shared a video of the pracharak – Yashwant Shinde – and claimed the affidavit reveals ‘horrific information about the Sangh’s anti-national activities’. “How a conspiracy was hatched to bomb the entire country, who were involved in it,” he tweeted.
In the affidavit – filed in a court in Maharashtra’s Nanded – Shinde claimed to have worked for the RSS (the BJP’s ideological mentor) and right-wing outfits Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal in various capacities at both state and national levels.
Shinde said he went to Jammu in 1994 after reading about atrocities meted out to Kashmiri Pandits and was appointed as ‘vistarak’ of Rajouri and Jawaharnagar. Annoyed by the statement of then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, Shinde said he hit the National Conference leader in his face, and was arrested and taken to Rajouri police station.