A senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionary on deputation to Uttarakhand’s ruling BJP has been stripped of all responsibilities following allegations from a woman member of the party that the leader had been sexually harassing her for a long time.
The action came on Saturday after a day-long meeting of party and RSS leaders in Delhi.
Devendra Bhasin, the party’s media in-charge for the hill state, said on Sunday: “It was obvious the organisational leaders would take action against someone who was allegedly involved in such a serious crime.”
“An inquiry has been ordered into the complaint of the woman,” Bhasin told a news conference in Dehradun.
Neither Bhasin nor the complainant has named the accused in public, but sources said Sanjay Kumar, the state BJP’s organisational general secretary, was sacked on Saturday after the meeting in Delhi. According to the BJP’s constitution, its organisational general secretary has to be a Sangh functionary.
Asked about Kumar, Bhasin said: “I don’t know who has been removed and why. An organisational general secretary is appointed by central leaders.”
Kumar couldn’t be reached on his mobile phone, which was switched off.
The complainant, who is from Allahabad but is based in Dehradun for party work, had earlier sent written complaints to central BJP leaders against the RSS functionary but has not approached police.
On Sunday she went public after the central leaders divested the accused of all responsibilities. “I am trying to believe that the police will treat me well before I approach them to register an FIR against a man who has unarguably been the most powerful leader in the state BJP for the last seven years,” she told reporters in Dehradun, asked why she had not gone to the police.
“The (state) government has set its intelligence agency after me ever since I talked about the sexual harassment. I don’t know whether it is to help or silence me,” she said.
“I belong to a family of RSS members. My entire family attends RSS shakhas. But the Sangh handed the responsibility of the organisation (BJP) to someone who is sick,” she added.
She also said a woman BJP leader had forcibly taken away her mobile phone where she had collected evidence against the RSS functionary.
The complainant shared with the media a purported video clip of a conversation with a senior party leader she met last month to seek help in exposing the RSS functionary.
“I have to remove this dirt (from the party). I am born and brought up in the RSS. I have courage (to fight against my tormentor),” she is heard saying in Hindi in the purported clip. “Every person in politics looks at women like a vulture…,” the BJP leader replies, according to the clip. “I want to tell you to remove from your mind the misconception that just because someone is from the RSS he would be a representative of God…. It is a physical need.”
The complainant said the BJP leader had agreed to help her get her tormentor punished.