RSS too divided on the issue of M J Akbar but majority wants him to go!

New Delhi, Oct 15: Though minister of state for external affairs M J Akbar has got reprieve from the government and the party despite the fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is vertically divided on the issue of MeToo allegations against the junior minister in the external affairs ministry.

The minister has gone to the extent of filing defamation case against a journalist accusing him. But Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) too is divided on the issue but majority of them are in favor of the argument that the minister must go.

Sources said that people in the public life must live by example. There have been several cases where people from the same political party relinquished important posts on moral ground. The RSS is of the view that so what if his questionable acts were of the time when he was not a minister but editor. Former BJP president L K Advani refused to contest Lok Sabha elections when his name figured in Hawala case just on the issue on simple allegation and he had come out clean in the matter later. There have been many other such cases.

It is not that people in the RSS divided but there is anger among a section of RSS leadership and it is being talked about that it will be expressed at the right forum. The RSS leadership is now keeping silent but it is not ready to buy arguments given by Akbar on the issue.

Opinion was already given by RSS joint general secretary (sahsarkaryawah) Dattatreya Hosabale who had shared a post by Facebook executive Ankhi Das saying, "You needn't have a #MeToo moment to support the women journalists who have narrated their victimisation. You needn't even be a woman. You just need to have a sensibility of what is right and what is wrong."

But another RSS leader and national executive member Indresh Kumar questioned survivors silent for 15 years and complaining about it now. But a big section is of the opinion that the minister must go on moral grounds. The BJP is looking at the matter in terms of political loss and gain and their assessment in that terms is absolutely correct as the issue is not traveling beyond metros but for RSS it something more.