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RSS backs VHP on Ayodhya

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi March 15. The RSS backs the VHP demand on "return of the undisputed land'' to them in Ayodhya and will participate in their "satyagraha'' on March 27.

Speaking to mediapersons after assuming charge, the new RSS spokesman, Ram Madhav, termed the VHP demand as "lawful'' and said if the Supreme Court decides to hand over the land to the Government, then it should be turned over to the VHP.

Denying that the BJP Government was trying to distance itself from the RSS and that the RSS had failed to work as a pressure group on economic issues, Mr. Madhav said the recent Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha at Nagpur was attended by leaders such as Venkaiah Naidu, Rajnath Singh (BJP), Dattopant Thengi (Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh), Ashok Singhal (VHP), and Gurumurthy and Murlidhar Rao (Swadesh Jagran Manch).

The `swadeshi' line was evident in the four resolutions adopted there, which included one on `Indianisation of agriculture', he said.

Turning to the controversy over the banning of RSS activities from municipal parks in Delhi, Mr. Madhav said only the "sangh'' can stop the holding of "shakhas''.

Saying that the RSS has added 1500 "shakhas'' in the last year, to a total of 45,900 plus, he said plans were on to launch an "expansion and consolidation'' programme to coincide with the 2006 birth centenary celebrations of their ideologue, V.D. Savarkar.

On the remarks that the Sangh was backing the Union Rural Development Minister, Shanta Kumar, who has been served a `show cause notice' by the party to explain his reported comments against the former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, P.K. Dhumal, Mr. Madhav said Mr. Kumar's comments smack of "indiscipline'' and whatever the party decides "is between the two''.

He said M.G. Vaidya was not removed as the spokesman of the RSS, but withdrew voluntarily as he was turning 80.

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