Was PoK issue raised during Lahore meet, asks Cong.

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 7. The Congress(I) has questioned the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee's statement on Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) and said that he was ``being guided more by the RSS rather than his own convictions.''

A pointer to this was Mr. Vajpayee's much-touted visit to Lahore last year. Had Mr. Vajpayee raised this issue when he visited Lahore and had he also made the return of PoK to India a pre- condition when he met Mr. Nawaz Sharief, the party asked. (Mr. Vajpayee said on Sunday that talks with Pakistan could only be possible if the latter agreed to hand over PoK to India.)

As far as the Congress(I) was concerned, it had always maintained that PoK was a part of Jammu and Kashmir, which was an integral part of India, Mr. Anil Shastri, the AICC spokesman, said today. The Congress(I) would not countenance any compromise on this issue.

Mr. Shastri also took the Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, to task for his statement in Bihar today that whoever was suspicious of the RSS was ``free not to join it''. Demanding that the Gujarat order lifting the ban on Government employees joining the RSS be withdrawn immediately, Mr. Shastri said it was a move to bulldoze people and coerce government employees to take part in RSS activities.

Although none of the BJP's allies had reacted unfavourably to the issue so far, the Congress(I) sees a repeat of 1979 in the offing, when Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani quit the Janata Party Government on the issue of dual membership of both the RSS and the Janata Party.

The Congress(I) also announced that the party president, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, would be campaigning in Orissa tomorrow and in Bihar the day after. In Orissa, she was scheduled to address election meetings at Koraput, Kodaped, Bhavanipatna and Belgaon.

All rebel candidates in the State had been expelled from the party, Mr. Shastri said. In Bihar, she would visit Dhanbad, Deogarh and Dumka, among other places.

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