New Delhi: Karnataka minister and senior BJP leader KS Eshwarappa said all Muslims and Christians in the country will associate themselves with the RSS in future, triggering a war of words with the Congress in state legislative Assembly on Thursday.


Eshwarappa’s statement came during a discussion on law and order in the House when speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri used the term "our RSS" and said a day would come when opposition legislators would also speak the same way.


The debate started when Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah made a reference to the saffron organisation while speaking about his personal equations with some BJP leaders and ministers.






“Personal relations are important, then comes party differences - BJP, RSS, Congress and others,” news agency PTI quoted the Congress leader as saying, to which the Speaker, in a lighter note asked Siddaramaiah, “Why are you feeling troubled about our RSS?”


As the Congress veteran was clarifying that he was not speaking by attaching any feelings, party MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan asked, “You (Speaker) are saying - ‘Our RSS’ - sitting on that chair?”


To this Kageri responded, “What else, if not our RSS? Yes….it is Our RSS. RSS is ours …. Zameer, I’m telling you one thing, if not today some day in the future, in our country, even you will have to say- Our RSS- definitely.”


This was followed by a verbal spat with Congress MLA KJ George saying, “Who are you to say Christians and Muslims will say RSS?”






Some Congress legislators, including Khan said that the day would never come when they would say it. Siddaramiah added that he, too, is opposed to the RSS.


Revenue Minister R Ashoka intervening into the matter, said the RSS has become “Sarva Vyapi and Sarva Sparshi” (ubiquitous and omnipresent).


“Our country’s President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister are all from RSS, every one has to accept it now….it is our good fortune,” Ashoka said as some Congress legislators called it the country’s ‘misfortune’.


Eshwarappa further said, “All Muslims and Christians in the country, if not today, some day in the future, will become (associate themselves with) RSS. There is no doubt about it.”


Meanwhile, taking sharp objection to the Speaker’s statement associating himself with the saffron organisation, Congress MLA Priyank Kharge reminded him of his stand on constitutional values during a debate last year, saying, “you had then claimed you are for constitution, now you are saying that you are in favour of RSS.”


He had then said that the RSS during protest had burnt the constitution at the Ramlila Maidan as they wanted ‘Manusmṛiti’.


The Speaker and the BJP members took strong objection to it and asked him not to speak ‘unwanted wrong things.’


“This is not right……if you want to do politics, do it outside,” the Speaker told Kharge.