Congress on Sunday said the links between terrorists and the RSS and its sister organisations needed to be investigated.

“The Indian National Congress calls upon the government to tackle this menace in the strongest possible manner and investigate links between terrorists and the RSS and its sister organisations that have been uncovered in some recent cases, the party said in its draft Political Resolution moved in the Plenary.
The resolution was proposed by senior leader Pranab Mukherjee and seconded by Digvijay Singh.

The resolution noted that the role of religious fundamentalist organizations in challenging the security of the nation can no longer be ignored.

The mention of suspicion of links between RSS and terrorism in the resolution assumes significance as a controversy had erupted after Rahul Gandhi’s remarks to US Ambassador Timothy Roemer about Hindu radicalism being a bigger threat than terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba became public recently.

“Terrorism, from wherever it comes and whatever form it takes, must be dealt with firmly and effectively,” it said.

Noting that the lifeline of Indian democracy was secularism, the resolution said it is the very basis of the countrys polity “that is threatened by the ideology of the BJP and its affiliate organizations like the RSS, which spreads hatred and violence.

“The RSS and the VHP are insidious in their effort to breakIndia,” it said.

Maintaining that the “failure to protect all citizens will cast a shadow over our future”, it said the BJP and RSS-VHP “continue to hide their prejudice and the atrocities committed by them behind the rhetoric of economic progress and pseudo-nationalism” and asserted it was imperative that the Congress and the people “call their bluff”.

In an attack on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, it said “we cannot be indifferent to the plight of our fellow citizens inGujarat who have suffered untold misery by denying their humanity we will betray our own.”

It also congratulated the UPA government for bringing in the Communal Violence Prevention Bill to prevent such violence and punish the perpetrators.

On the Ayodhya issue, it said while the Supreme Court verdict has to be awaited, the perpetrators of the “shameful” act of demolition of the Babri Masjid should be brought to justice.