Communist Party of India-Marxist veteran Jyoti Basu on Monday criticised the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and called its chief K S Sudarshan a 'public enemy'.

"The RSS is a barbaric organisation," Basu said reacting to the outfit's criticism of President A P J Abdul Kalam, who will participate in a meet of students from Jesuit institutions in Kolkata.

"This is West Bengal, and let them [the RSS] know it well that here there are no takers for their barbaric and uncivilised religious propaganda," Basu said adding that the people would reject the RSS' view of Hinduism.

Sudarshan has raised a controversy by suggesting that the President should not 'patronise' the Jesuits, who 'gag other religions' to spread Catholicism. He recently said both Islam and Christianity reject other religions.

Kalam, who himself studied at a missionary college, is slated to open the Jesuit institution alumni's sixth global meet in Kolkata on Tuesday. Around 600 delegates from all over the world will attend the four-day conclave.

"I have said earlier and say it again that not only the RSS, but all its ideological partners, including the party ruling at the federal level [the Bharatiya Janata Party], are the party of the uncivilised and brutes," Basu said.

The RSS claims it has 55,000 members in West Bengal.