PM to meet RSS chief, explain compulsions

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, JUNE 16. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, is believed to be thinking of engaging the RSS leadership in a dialogue on the question of the Sangh Parivar's reservations on the NDA Government's economic polices.

A serious note has been taken of the harsh indictment by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) of the Government's recent decisions, and it is felt the time has come to make the Parivar's leadership understand and appreciate the official thinking and compulsions.

It is believed that the Prime Minister is likely to have ``a serious talk'' with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief, Mr. K.S. Sudershan. The assumption is that the SJM could not have gathered courage to criticise the Government harshly without encouragement from the RSS establishment.

In a statement on Thursday, the SJM had criticised the decision to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in business to business e-commerce as ``a virtual sell-out of a high value national potential to the prejudice of emerging Indian corporates in e-commerce''. It is the SJM's view that ``some powerful lobbies have succeeded in securing this decision. There appears to be no other acceptable explanation for it.''

What has not been particularly appreciated is the charge against the bureaucracy, ``sections of which have lost their national moorings''.

The SJM has been equally critical of the decision to remove the cap of Rs. 1,500 crores for 100 per cent automatic FDI in power projects.

This criticism has prompted thinking at the highest level that things need to be sorted out with the RSS top brass. In this face-off, the Prime Minister will have the full backing of his senior Ministerial colleagues such as the Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, and the Minister for External Affairs, Mr. Jaswant Singh. Also, Mr. Vajpayee is confident of the full support of the BJP hierarchy, including the party president, Mr. Kushabhau Thakre, and the vice-president, Mr. Jana Krishnamurthy.

Under pressure from the Parivar quarters, the Government, against its inclination, has allowed a reopening of the debate on iodised salt. This was seen a small price to pay if it could buy peace with the Parivar.

The SJM's latest criticism has prompted a judgment at the highest level that it would be not possible to buy lasting peace with it and the RSS. It is felt that the Parivar leadership had come to posit a clash of opposite approaches between its thinking and that of the government.

For example, in his statement, the national joint convenor of the SJM, Mr. S. Gurumurthy, says, ``What worries the SJM is the continuation of the national drift under the NDA Government - the drift that began with the previous Governments, of both the Congress(I) and the United Front. The present announcement is part of this drift. The fits-like and diverse policy announcements by different Ministries about the entry of FDI, as well as the sectoral caps for it, bring out not any strategic thinking about the economy as a whole, but the unwholesomeness, incoherence and even mindlessness in policy- making.''

On its part, the Vajpayee Government is proceeding on the assumption that there is no alternative but to invite FDI to enhance production; otherwise, the country would simply have to buy its requirements from abroad. Time, in other words, has come to tell the noisy fraternity to fall in line.

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