Ready To Rejoin RSS: Calcutta High Court Judge Chitta Ranjan Dash In His Farewell Speech

Justice Chitta Ranjan Dash, who retired as a Calcutta high court judge on Monday, has raised eyebrows with his claims that he is a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and he is willing to go back to the organisation.

"Today, I must unfold my true self. I owe a lot to an organisation...I am there from my childhood till I attained youth...throughout my youth. I have learnt to be courageous, upright...(have) equal view for others, and above all, the sense of patriotism and commitment to the work, wherever you work...To the distaste of some persons, I must admit here that I was, and I am, a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)," The Indian Express quoted him as saying.

Dash stated, "I am ready now to go back to the organisation if they call me for any assistance, or for any work they need (that) I am capable of doing."

Justice Dash said that he never leveraged his membership in the RSS to advance his career. He noted that he had distanced himself from the organisation due to his judicial responsibilities.

He stated that, as a judge, he treated everyone equally and did not discriminate based on political affiliations. "I have never used my membership of the organisation for any advancement of my career because it is against its principles...I treated everybody at par, be he a rich or poor person, be he a communist, or from the BJP, Congress or TMC. All are equal before me; I do not hold any bias for anyone or any particular political philosophy or mechanism," he said.

As he has never done anything wrong in his life, the Justice has the courage to admit that he belongs to the RSS. "If I am a good person, I could not belong to a bad organisation," he claimed in his farewell speech.

The RSS is a Hindu right-wing organization and the ideological parent of the ruling BJP. Many senior BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, and former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, were members of the RSS before joining the saffron party.

Justice Dash further said, "I have learnt to be courageous, upright and have an equal view for others and above all, the sense of patriotism and commitment to the work...I tried to dispense justice on the principles of empathy. Law can be bent to do justice, but justice cannot be bent to suit the law."

It may be recalled that Justice Dash found himself at the centre of controversy when he was part of a bench that issued a judgment prescribing certain codes of conduct for adolescent girls aimed at 'controlling their sexual urges.'