Protests against 'Water' reveal RSS mindset: NCP

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 7. The violent demonstrations against the film, `Water', by outfits of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Varanasi reflected a totalitarian and anti-democratic mindset, the Nationalist Congress Party said today. Describing the incidents as part of a discernible pattern, the party spokesman, Mr. Devendra Dwivedi, accused ``the advocates of cultural nationalism'' of trying to project a siege mentality.

No section of society had the right to take the law into its own hands and proscribe or censor the content of any art form. Critics should wait until the film was made to have their say. Prior censorship was unconstitutional.

Besides, Varanasi's reputation as a seat of learning and culture was in no danger of erosion and needed no defenders. ``Its reputation stands on firmer foundations,'' he said pointing out that the city had a long tradition of cultural pluralism and tolerance and also of intense self-criticism.

On the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee's defence of the Gujarat government's order and his description of the RSS as a ``social and cultural organisation'', the NCP said Mr. Vajpayee was trying to mend fences with the BJP's parent organisation. ``He has said this out of self-preservation and in the interests of his own Government,'' Mr. Dwivedi observed.

To state that the RSS was not a political organisation was to indulge in technicalities and distort the factual position; the RSS was an active participant in political activities. The NCP called for the ban to continue as the neutrality of the bureaucracy was vital.

In the coming Assembly elections in four States, the NCP has decided to go it alone. Mr. Dwivedi admitted that talks with parties such as the Samajwadi Party and the CPI had failed. The party has put up 190 candidates in Bihar, 32 in Haryana, 31 in Orissa and 40 in Manipur.

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