Congress, CPI(M) slam Mamata Banerjee over her ‘praise’ for RSS

BJP says the organisation does not need her certificate

A veritable political “storm in a tea cup” has arisen over Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s assertions on Wednesday that all in the RSS were “not bad” and that there are many who “do not support BJP”.

While the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday attacked her for what they saw as opportunism on Ms. Banerjee’s part, the BJP said it did not need certificates from her.

The RSS, instead of commenting on her left-handed praise, pointed to Bengal’s record of political violence and asked for corrective measures.

The sharpest attack came from the Hyderabad-based All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who on Thursday said that “in 2003 too, she had called RSS ‘patriots’, (and) in turn Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh had called her Durga”.

Mr. Owaisi, whose party failed to win a single seat including the Muslim majority constituencies in Bengal in the last Assembly elections where it positioned itself as opposed to both the TMC and the BJP, said sarcastically, “Hope TMC’s ‘Muslim faces’ praise her for her honesty and consistency”.

The TMC, however, tried to make light of Mr. Owaisi’s remark and said the party didn’t need to prove its secular credentials to him.

"We don't need to prove anything to Owaisi. Mamata Banerjee has tried to say that every organisation has good and bad people. We don't need to prove our secular credentials to anyone after we defeated the BJP-RSS juggernaut in the last assembly polls," TMC MP Sougata Roy said.