Amritsar: In controversial remarks, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on January 29 blamed Mahatma Gandhi for the country's division, attacked the media for its "anti-Hindu" bias and asserted all Sikhs were Hindus.

At a function organised to honour its volunteers who saved "Hindus from Muslim goons", RSS chief K S Sudarshan also urged Hindus to organise themselves and said the "unnatural partition" of the country must end.

"While Gandhi succeeded in creating and leading a people's movement, he committed two mistakes supporting Khilafat movement and making Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru the first Prime Minister. The end result was that two enemies, Pakistan and Bangladesh, were created forever," he said.

The RSS chief said, "Everyone makes mistakes but when a big leader makes a mistake, they lead to serious consequences."

"While Nehru described partition as a fantastic nonsense, Gandhi said it would be allowed only over his dead body," Sudarshan said in his hour-long address.

He, however, termed Gandhi's assailant Nathuram Godse as "farphira" (insane person).

Earlier in the day, activists of Dal Khalsa and Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) led by Simranjit Singh Mann, MP, staged protests against the RSS programme saying it sought to revive old wounds.

Sudarshan said the function was necessary to remind the younger generation of the sacrifices made by RSS members.

The RSS chief said the country's "unnatural" partition should end as only then India can play its role in the world and predicted that India will lead the world from 2011 onwards.

Urging Hindus to organise themselves, Sudarshan said, "We never go out and kill but if anyone attacks us we will retaliate."

Quoting from Sikh scriptures, Sudarshan attacked the tendency to divide Hindus and Sikhs and asserted both were one and the same. "Sikhs were being segregated from the Hindu society to make them easy prey to conversions," he said. Defending the post-Godhra violence as a Hindu reaction, he claimed, however, that the violence from March four onwards last year was instigated by pro-Pakistan Muslims and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agents. Turning his ire on the media for "negatively projecting" hindutva and focusing on reaction and not actions, he alleged some publications in Mumbai and New Delhi were being funded from abroad. Sudarshan attacked Congress president Sonia Gandhi for delivering a lecture at an Oxford body funded by Osama bin Laden's kin and attributed it to her "rootlessness". He described RSS activist turned-Gujarat Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela as "Jaichand". He also targeted the over 30,000 madrassas along the country's border for allegedly preaching hatred against Hindus.

PTI