RSS not a terrorist organisation, won't do anything against country: Ramdev

HARIDWAR: Yoga Guru Ramdev on Thursday said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will never do anything against the country. He made this remark in response to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's statement that the RSS was involved in anti-law activities. "I have seen the leaders of RSS closely. RSS is not a terrorist or a Naxal organisation. It is a nationalist organisation and it would never do anything against the country," Ramdev said.

While speaking in the Kerala Assembly on Wednesday, Vijayan had said that outfits like RSS and Popular Front of India (PFI) were carrying out illegal drills and arms training. "PFI and RSS are conducting arms training and such drills are against the laws of the land. We have information that some organisations are carrying out training with sticks even in Devaswom temples," Vijayan had said during the question hour in the state assembly.

He had also informed the Assembly that the government, if needed, would bring in a law to ban drills and arms training being conducted in public and in places of worship.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, has been highlighting murders of BJP and RSS workers in Kerala, which is ruled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left Democratic Front coalition.

On October 6 last year, BJP president Amit Shah sharply criticised Chief Minister Vijayan for failing to protect Sangh Parivar workers in the state. "As many as 120 BJP-RSS workers have been murdered in Kerala so far," Shah had told the party's Janraksha Yatra, or people's protection march in Kannur district.