Cong Squirms Over Kesris Remarks

A day after the RSS filed a defamation case against Congress president Sitaram Kesri for alleging that the organisation was behind the Coimbatore blasts, he claimed that he had been misquoted.

The Congress stood embarrassed yesterday and spokesman Surendra Singla refused to comment on the issue, saying that he was not aware of Kesri retracting his statement. Prime Minister I K Gujrals statement earlier in the day that there was a Pakistani hand behind the blasts further embarrassed the party.

On Wednesday, taking a cue from Kesri, Singla promised that if his party came to power, it would ban the RSS as it had done in the past.

You know how the press sometimes reports, Kesri yesterday said in Indore, claiming he had been obviously misquoted. He said what he actually said was that the RSS might be involved.

Kesri also told a television channel that he had not denied the statement, that he was not afraid of the RSS as he was behind bars for seven years during British rule. On the defamation case filed by the RSS, Kesri said: RSSthe true face of the BJP, was now coming out in the open to fight the Congress.

It is for the first time that functionaries of the RSS were coming out in the open, he said referring to the stand taken by RSS chief Rajendra Singh on the allegation. In the past, his predecessors like Balasaheb Deoras never publicly got involved in controversies, Kesri said.