In a trouble-shooting exercise, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Singh (RSS) has clarified that its chief Mohan Bhagwat didn’t compare RSS cadres with soldiers of the Indian army. “Bhagwat has been misquoted in the press,” it has asserted, consciously toeing away from a controversy.

Speaking at a mammoth meeting of RSS’s uniformed cadres, Bhagwat reportedly said that while the Indian army and its soldiers might take 6-7 months to prepare themselves to indulge in a full=scale war, RSS cadres would be ready to face the battle within 3 months of advance notice. Bhagwat was also in praise of the military-like discipline that the RSS cadres had been getting accustomed to for many years now.

Taking on Bhagwat, Congress president Rahul Gandhi strongly condemned the Bhagwat for humiliating security forces and demanded an unconditional apology from him. Bhagwat’s statement, coming as it does in the midst of serious gun-battles between security forces and terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir for the past many months, has surprised and shocked many.

In a statement issued in New Delhi this morning, RSS said that Bhagwat’s statement had been ‘misquoted’ in the press which had inadvertently ‘distorted’ his speech. It said that Bhagwat didn’t compare the war preparedness of the Army and the RSS cadres but only drove home the ever-ready alertness of RSS cadres.  The BJP, which rules at the Centre and is reportedly guided by the RSS ideology, hasn’t yet reacted to the statement of the RSS chief.