India News ---RSS says sorry.

RSS says sorry to Sonia on former chief's rant

AgenciesPosted: Fri Nov 12 2010, 19:08 hrs================================================================================New Delhi: The RSS on Friday expressed regret over the controversial statements of its former chief K S Sudarshan against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and again made it clear that it does not represent the views of the organisation.

"As the joint general secretary of RSS, I express my heartfelt deep regrets over the alleged statement (of Sudarshan), which had hurt the sentiments, and the subsequent developments that are unfortunate," Sangh leader Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said in a statement.

He appealed to all to maintain peace and restraint. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said the party's views on the issue were the same as that of the RSS.

In a statement issued yesterday, RSS leader Manmohan Vaidhya had said that Sudarshan's views were not that of the organisation.

"No discussion on this issue has taken place in the Sangh on this issue and neither does the Sangh have any information on this," Vaidhya had said.

Sudarshan has espoused a bizarre theory that the Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had plotted the assassinations of her husband Rajiv Gandhi and mother-in-law Indira.

In more bizarre charges – in Bhopal two days ago – he called her a CIA agent and said she had blocked an attempt to remove Satnam Singh as Indira Gandhi’s bodyguard (he would later assassinate her along with another bodyguard). Sudarshan also questioned why Sonia had “insisted” the dying prime minister be taken to AIIMS instead of the nearby Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. Topping it all was Sudarshan’s charge that Sonia was an illicit child.

In a scathing attack on Thursday, the Congress called Sudarshan a “fossil from the archaeological museum”. “No language can be more uncivilised than this. There can be no bigger lies than these. If Congressmen get provoked after hearing all this, they (RSS) will be responsible for it... The reaction from the society to it should be such that none can dare use such uncivilised and obscene language again,” AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said.

Noting that Sudarshan “said things which cannot be repeated”, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal said the 80-year-old “seemed to have lost its mental balance”. He also sought an apology from the BJP, saying it drew its inspiration from the RSS.

=================================================