RSS, Digvijay Singh clash over his photo with Sangh leaders

RSS and Digvijay Singh on Thursday clashed over publication of a photograph which showed the senior Congress leader sharing dais with Sangh leaders at a Hindu meet.

While RSS accused Singh, who is a vocal critic of the saffron outfit, of practicing "vote-bank and communal" politics, Singh hit back saying the Sangh should explain whether it ever praised him as it has done Anna Hazare in a recent book published by it.

"This recent expose of the photograph is the reaffirmation of the age old communal politics that Congress has been indulging in right from the beginning," RSS leader Ram Madhav told reporters here.

"They have no qualms in going to a particular platform for the sake of electoral dividends and in the same breath they have no sense of shame in going and attacking them publicly for the sake of some other groups' votes," he said.

"This is a kind of minority politics, communal politics, that they have been indulging in right from the beginning. I don't see anything more than that in this so called controversial photograph.

"I don't believe that he has any faith in any particular ideology any time. He has only faith is in his communal votebank politics," Madhav said.

Hitting back at RSS, Singh said he was grateful to RSS workers and BJP for "doing the research".

"This virat Hindu sammelan was called by Kanchi seer Sankaracharyaji and I had gone in that conference with the permission of Congress leadership," he said.

"A book has published about Anna Hazare under a publication of RSS. What will you say about it? Has RSS ever written a book praising Digvijay Singh," Singh asked.