Patna's senior superintendent of police Manavjeet Singh Dhillon, who is in the eye of a storm for allegedly comparing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh with Islamic extremist outfit Popular Front of India, on Friday asserted that the controversy stemmed from a "selective interpretation" of his statement.
Dhillon, who the BJP has been gunning for after he referred to he physical training provided by PFI to its cadres "like the RSS shakhas" at a press conference on Thursday, underscored that he was merely stating what was there "on record, as part of our investigations".
"I was asked by journalists about the modus operandi of PFI of which a network we busted on Wednesday night. In reply, I shared what the arrested persons said during interrogation and also what their propaganda material had to say. There is an elaborate reference to this (PFI modelling its training programme after RSS shakhas)," Dhillon told reporters.
He stressed that he never "compared one organisation with another" and blamed "selective interpretation" for the row, but added that "we are focused on the investigation, undistracted by any controversy".
Notably, while the BJP launched a blistering attack on the SSP for the remark they felt denigrated its parent body, the additional director general of police (headquarters) in Bihar, JS Gangwar, had frowned upon "comparing one organisation with another” and wished that Dhillon had remained focused on the investigation.
Dhillon was also asked about plans of the PFI network here during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had on July 12 attended a centenary function at the state assembly premises.
"They did not seem to be intending to directly target the prime minister's tour. But they had planned agitations against CAA-NRC and triple talaq in localities with a predominantly Muslim population on that day. They gave up the idea after the police surveillance was heightened July 11 onwards," he said.
BJP leaders have been insisting that the Islamic organisation which has a strong presence in southern states, wanted to "target" Modi who had survived a series of explosions that took place at Gandhi Maidan here nine years ago when he was addressing his maiden rally in Bihar.
Meanwhile, Dhillon's clarification does not seem to have soothed ruffled feathers in the BJP which charged him with behaving like "a cunning and vicious fox".
BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand made the remarks in a strongly worded statement wherein he called Dhillon's clarification as "even more dangerous" and tantamount to "indirectly giving a clean chit to PFI".
Anand also asked whether the IPS officer "wants to be his master's voice by showing the RSS in a negative light" and accused Dhillon of making "out of way political statements".
