The “truth” behind the razing of the statue of Communist icon Vladimir Lenin in Tripura last week will “come out soon”, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh General Secretary Suresh “Bhaiyyaji” Joshi said on Sunday, without elaborating further. He said the organisation does not approve of such incidents, The Indian Express reported.

“The RSS has always spoken out against such incidents,” Joshi said. “We had condemned the attacks on churches too. On some occasions of confusion and conflict, anti-social elements become active and tend to carry out such acts.”

Suspected workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party brought down a statue of Lenin in Belonia town near Agartala on Monday, two days after the party dethroned the 25-year-old Left government in the Tripura Assembly elections. Statues of social reformer Periyar, BR Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi have been vandalised in parts of the country since then.

A statue of 19th-century poet and scholar Michael Madhusudan Dutt was also found defaced in Raniganj of West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman district on Saturday, IANS reported. Unknown people painted Dutt’s face in red.

On Saturday, the RSS’ highest decision-making body had elected Joshi as general secretary for a fourth straight term. At a press conference a day later, he talked about topics ranging from the Ram Temple dispute in Ayodhya to farmers’ issues and the Lingayat movement in Karnataka.

He said it was a “foregone conclusion” that there could not be anything else on the disputed site in Ayodhya but the Ram Temple. The Supreme Court is hearing the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute, and will next hear the matter on March 14.