Kolkata, Oct 1 (IANS) The CPI(M), on Wednesday, criticised the Union government over the release of a postage stamp and a 100-rupee coin by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

In a statement issued, the party’s politburo described the event as “a grave injury and insult to the Constitution of India, which the RSS has never accepted.”

According to the CPI(M) leadership, it was highly objectionable that an official coin should replicate the “Bharat Mata” image of a Hindu goddess promoted by the RSS as a symbol of its sectarian concept of a Hindutva Rashtra.

“The postage stamp showing uniformed RSS volunteers at the 1963 Republic Day parade also falsifies history. This is based on the lie that Nehru invited the RSS to participate in the 1963 Republic Day parade as recognition of its patriotism during the Indo-China war, when it has been shown through evidence that the 1963 Republic Day parade was essentially a huge gathering of more than one lakh citizens. The presence of uniformed RSS volunteers, if at all, was unreported and incidental,” the party politburo statement read.

The CPI(M) leadership claimed that the entire exercise to the release and stamp and a new coin to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of RSS to whitewash the role of the RSS which was not just distant from the freedom struggle but actually strengthened the British strategy of divide and rule, thus seeking to weaken the unity of the people of India which was a crucial component of the struggle against colonial rule.

“The history of independent India has seen the worst communal violence, in which the role of the RSS has been detailed in numerous reports of official commissions of inquiry. Today, it is the RSS and its Parivar who continue to target minority communities and also marginalised sections of society through the promotion of manuvadi ideologies. This is the reality of the history of the RSS that the Prime Minister seeks to conceal by misusing his position. In doing so, he has lowered the dignity of the constitutional position he holds,” the Politburo statement read.

–IANS

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