Mohan Bhagwat and Akbaruddin Owaisi products of similar ideology: Shivanand Tiwari

NEW DELHI: A JD(U) leader’s comments comparing RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat with Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi has infuriated the ally, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “The RSS ideology is propagated among Hindus and MIM’s amongst Muslims. Mohan Bhagwat and Akbaruddin Owaisi are similar products of that ideology.

There is no difference between them,” JD (U) leader Shivanand Tiwari said on Monday. The comparison between RSS chief Bhagwat and Owaisi, who has been booked for a hate speech in Hyderabad, has not gone down well with BJP. The party has asked JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav to restrain party leaders from making such comments.

“On behalf of BJP, I not only refute, but strongly condemn his completely unwarranted comments. He has compared Mohan Bhagwatji with MIM MLA Owaisi. What does he mean by this? He has made very uncharitable comments about RSS.

I need to inform him as a swayamsevak of RSS myself that in the whole RSS ideology and also working, Dalits, backwards, women…, all are given pride of place, their work speaks for themselves,” BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in the national capital. Describing Tiwari’s remark as “uncharitable”, Prasad said he had made “uncalled for” comments earlier too and JD(U) was forced to clarify that it did not represent the party’s official line.

“I would appeal to Sharad Yadavji, the national president of JD (U), to restrain these highly unwarranted and condemnable utterances of Shivanand Tiwari,” he said. RSS chief Bhagwat had been under fire last week when he criticised the “Western” lifestyle of people in cities and said that “rapes occur frequently in India not in Bharat”.

BJP had defended him saying the controversy over his remark was unjustified and that his remarks should be seen in entirety.

The party said Mohan Bhagwat had also talked about security of women and the need for stringent laws like capital punishment. “You go to villages and forests of the country, and there will be no such incidents of gang-rape or sex crimes.

They are prevalent in some urban belts. Besides, the new legislations, Indian ethos and attitude towards women should be revisited in the context of ancient Indian values,” Bhagwat had said.