A photo of the serving Director General of the BSF at an event oragnised by the RSS-affiliate body, Seemanta Chetana Mancha, has now gone viral on social media platforms.
Reacting angrily to the development, Trinamool Congress’ parliamentary party leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Derek O’Brien, said that he will raise the matter with Home Minister Rajnath Singh. He tweeted, ” What is a serving BSF DG, KK Sharma,doing in uniform at “RSS-backed NGO’s function in Kolkata”?We will take issue to HomeMinister.”
#BREAKING What is a serving BSF DG, KK Sharma,doing in uniform at “RSS-backed NGO’s function in Kolkata”?We will take issue to HomeMinister pic.twitter.com/wE3CrZP3bu
— Derek O’Brien (@derekobrienmp) February 11, 2018
“DG BSF attended our programme and spoke on border issues for an hour. What is wrong in that? We are an NGO and not a political party. We have always served the country and worked in border areas. It is the duty of the BSF to liaison with organisations working for border development,” said Jagannath Senapati, the NGO’s (Bengal) organising secretary was quoted by Indian Express.
The BSF, for its part, issued a statement justifying Sharma’s presence in the RSS function. The statement read, “The presentation from BSF entailed the role and task of BSF in the field of border management, the challenges thereof and the welfare activities undertaken by the force for the border population. It was emphasised that border management cannot be done without active participation of the border population. The exercise was to showcase BSF as a people-friendly force and it was exhorted that people living on the border areas are the eyes and ears of the force to face the multi dimensional challenges of border management.”
A similar controversy was triggered in Uttar Pradesh after a senior IPS officer was found taking pledge for the early construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The video had gone viral on social media platforms.
The BSF has not reacted to this development. But the allegations will have serious consequences on the integrity of the paramilitary forces.
