by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Nitish Douses fire on controversial RSS circular
Alliance intact
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, July 18
Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (U) president Nitish Kumar swung into action to douse the fire which is rocking the alliance for the past some time over a circular issued by the state intelligence bureau.
The circular issued by the Bihar Police's Special Branch (intelligence wing) directed all district police officials to collect information on the RSS functionaries and its 17 affiliate bodies functioning in the state. The circular was issued on May 28 with the sign and seal of the SP of the Special Branch. The Special Branch is directly under the Chief Minister who is state's Home minister as well. The secret circular, however, surfaced last week and snowballied into a major controversy as BJP is a key ally. The letter directing DSPs to provide details of leaders of RSS and its 17 affiliates including their telephone numbers, addresses, facebook accounts etc etc.
The circular detailed surfaced at a time when differences have already surfaced over over number of berths to be given to the JD(U) in the Union Cabinet.
Now a detailed probe has been ordered by the Chief Minister into the controversial circular and SP may face problems too. Additional Director General of Police (Special Branch), G S Gangwar tried to control the damage, saying “the directive was not at the behest of the government... it was issued it without clearance.” Obviously, the government is trying to distance itself from tnhe circular full 50 days after it was issued. The home department is understood to have slapped a show-cause notice on him.
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