Patna: The BJP is seeing red in Bihar after a controversial letter surfaced Tuesday. In the letter, a top police official directed his subordinates to seek information about some office-bearers of the RSS and 18 of its allied organisations.
Dated 28 May, the letter by Patna’s then superintendent of police (SP), Special Branch, Rajeev Ranjan asked deputy SPs to collect details like name, address, telephone number, profession and others, and send it to the headquarters.
“Treat the letter as urgent,” it said. ThePrint has seen a copy of the letter.
The allied RSS organisations for which information was sought included VHP, Bajrang Dal, Hindu Jagran Manch, Dharam Jagaran Samanvay Samiti, Hindu Rashtra Sena, Muslim Rashtriya Manch, Durga Vahini and other outfits.
‘Nothing secretive about our activities’
With the letter having surfaced now, the BJP leaders in the state are keeping mum over the issue.
However, party MLA Nitin Navin told ThePrint, “Let the police gather information about RSS. It is not a terrorist organisation.”
The ruling party’s parent organisation, though, reacted cautiously. “We have heard about the letter and are trying to verify it,” said Rajesh Kumar Pandey, RSS prant pracharak (provincial campaigner).
“But there is nothing secretive about our activities in Bihar that the police has to find out. Everybody knows where we hold shakhas. We hold regular elections and programme information which is shared with the media,” said Pandey.
But there is also an element of amusement in the RSS camp. “The list of organisations in the letter includes outfits like Hindu Putra Sangathan, which we have never heard of. Wonder how the special branch functions,” said an RSS functionary who didn’t wish to be named.
Leaders of BJP’s alliance partner in the Bihar government, JD(U), tried to play down the matter, calling it “a routine affair”.
“The special branch does gather information on organisations existing in the state. It does not reflect on the relationship between BJP and JD(U) in Bihar,” remarked Bihar Public Relations Minister Neeraj Kumar.
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‘Job of Special Branch’
Special Branch officials are now neither accepting nor denying the letter. Kartikeya Sharma, Special Branch SP, told ThePrint that he was posted in June and didn’t know about the letter.
Rajeev Ranjan, the official who wrote the letter, was transferred last month.
However, an inspector general ranked official, who did not wish to be named, said the Special Branch did nothing wrong in seeking this information.
“It’s the job of Special Branch to gather information on organisations which function in the state. It’s not about friendly or unfriendly organisations. We gather information even on service organisations and political parties apart from subversive outfits,” said the official.
However, the Bihar Police headquarters in Patna pointed towards the communal flare-up in the state last year during Ram Navami which engulfed around one dozen districts of Bihar.
“We had to use the help of Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi (of BJP) to call the district RSS and other organisation leaders to back off,” said another police official who didn’t wish to be identified.
With the home department in Bihar under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, BJP leaders highlighted the “timing of the letter”.
“It was written at a time when the Union government formation was on and the BJP central government had made it clear that they would not give Nitish Kumar proportionate representation in the cabinet. It is hard to believe that the letter was not written without the consent of the CM,” said a senior BJP leader not wishing to be named.
While the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha results were declared on 23 May, the Modi government’s oath-taking ceremony took place on 30 May. Kumar pulled out of the cabinet minutes before the event started.
The surfacing of the letter now is being seen in BJP circles as another move by the Bihar CM to undermine the party.
Nitish Kumar & RSS
Before Nitish Kumar came to power, the existence of RSS was considered weak in Bihar. It grew during his regime and runs over 1,800 shakhas across the state today.
Last year, the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat stayed in Bihar for 10 days on the pretext of holding workshops to improve the breed of cows. At the time, RSS leaders had made it clear that Bihar was “strategically and politically (a) very important state” for them.
Before the 2013 alliance break-up with the BJP, Kumar had kept RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in good humour. But after snapping ties with the ruling party, Kumar had called for “Sangh Mukt Bharat”.
After the second reunion between the BJP and Kumar’s JD(U) in 2017, however, the relationship has not been warm, especially after the communal tension during Ram Navami last year.
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