It's becoming like a regular cycle now. Someone compares the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and then all hell breaks loose.
On Monday, JD (U) leader KC Tyagi compared the RSS to ISIS by calling the latter the Muslim version of the former. On Sunday, well-known historian Irfan Habib equated the two saying they were ‘intellectually similar’.
However, these remarks have not met with a warm welcome on social media. Habib garnered a good deal of criticism on Twitter, with journalist Shekhar Gupta tweeting, “There's much to question on RSS ideology. But comparing with ISIS is ridiculous. In fact, this is just how liberal case is trivialised, lost”.
Journalist Tavleen singh tweeted, "If Irfan Habib believes there is no difference between the RSS and ISIS it is time for him to give up writing history."
Twitter user Anil Kumar Sharma tweeted, “The foul-mouthed historian Irfan Habib should know that had RSS been IS then by now he would have lost his bloody head.” The historian had made the statement during a Prat-irodh or a ‘resistance’ meet. Irfan Habib soon started trrending on Twitter.
Habib and Tyagi are not isolated instances. In October, CPI (M) Kerala state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had compared the two in a similar fashion, likening ISIS’s ideology of attacking opposing Muslims to RSS targeting opposing Hindus. Before that, CPI(M) Politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan had said the same.