A barrage of immoderate political comments in Bihar over former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief K.S. Sudarshan’s no-holds-barred personal diatribes against Congress president Sonia Gandhi resurrected old dichotomies and ironies in the state’s politics on Saturday, indicating that the controversy could overshadow the campaigns for the final phase of Assembly polls.
As a combative Congress encouraged street protests against Mr Sudarshan for the second consecutive day and condemned chief minister Nitish Kumar’s silence on the issue, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav let loose his subdued soft corners for the Congress president and demanded that Sudarshan must “apologise to the nation” for his comments. Leaders of the BJP, ally of Bihar’s ruling JD(U), strongly spoke against the angry reactions of the state’s Congress leaders.
“Those were very dirty comments. Such a man (Sudarshan) has no right to be in the RSS, and the RSS is a fascist organisation. Sonia Gandhi is a lady. I strongly condemn Sudarshan’s comments against her,” said Mr Yadav, who has been critical of the RSS for long and had resisted the organisation’s national conclave in Bihar’s Rajgir last year.
Pooh-poohing Yadav’s call for Sudarshan’s apology, BJP leader and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said: “Laluji is back to his old statement-mongering as his party is going to win no more than 30 seats in Bihar.”
In the most outspoken reactions, senior Congress leader and MLC Mahachandra Singh said: “I am asking the BJP and NDA’s leaders to facilitate an apology from Sudarshan, who has lost his mental balance. Or else the Congress will go very far, and in Bihar the people will smear black liquid on Sudarshan’s face and, if need be, they will spit on his face.”