The Hindu : National : Sudarshan accuses Left of `back-seat driving'

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Sunday, Oct 24, 2004

National

National

Sudarshan accuses Left of `back-seat driving'

NAGPUR, OCT. 2 3. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, K.S. Sudarshan, has accused the Left parties of indulging in "back-seat driving" in the UPA Government and conspiring to harm the "Hindu forces."

The "sarsanghchalak," who avoided any reference to the outcome of the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra polls, also took a broadside against the Bharatiya Janata Party for promising to appoint two lakh Urdu teachers in the run-up to the general elections.

The BJP president, L.K. Advani, and the party's youth leader, Varun Gandhi, were present during the annual address at the RSS headquarters here.

The RSS chief did not make any direct attack on the Congress.

Pointing out that the "Marxputras" (leftists) and "Macaulayputras" (English educated elite) were among the prominent opponents of the Sangh, he said, "by chance, they are in a position today to do back-seat driving in the Government and therefore are engaged in conspiring to harm the Hindu forces.

"Because of their negative thinking, the `Marxputras' can do only destructive work, never can they do anything constructive. Otherwise, they should have transformed West Bengal, a Marxist paradise, where they enjoyed uninterrupted power for the last 27 years."

The RSS chief, who in his earlier addresses had called for the Indianisation of the church and asked Muslims and Christians to accept their Indian ancestry, asked the Government to make necessary changes in the education policy of madrasas "as has been done in other Islamic nations."

Taking a swipe at the BJP, which has come under attack from Sangh Parivar outfits, who accused it of abandoning Hindutva, leading to its debacle in the polls, he said: "To win the elections by any means whatsoever they (political parties) strive to create their vote banks and to attract them keep on giving all sorts of assurances. During the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP gave an assurance that if voted to power it would appoint two lakh Urdu teachers.

"Did it ever occur to them that Urdu has been the language promoting vivisection of the country?"

FDI in telecom

On the economic front, Mr. Sudarshan expressed concern over the Government's plan to raise foreign equity in the telecom sector to 74 per cent. ``This only means that in this strategically most important area, Bharat will lose its dominant position and multinationals will have a field day."

He also expressed concern over the increasing population of Muslims and Christians and infiltration of Bangladeshis into the country.

He suggested that federal forces be given the right to intervene in naxalite and insurgency-affected areas and advocated people's initiatives to solve the problems faced by the country.

Reeling out statistics to substantiate his charge of mis-governance in West Bengal, the RSS chief said the State ranked fourth in the country as far as economic infrastructure was concerned in 1971-72 but was pushed back to 14th position in 1997-98.

As far as social infrastructure indicators are concerned, West Bengal ranked tenth in 1977, the year the Left Front came to power. After 25 years, it is stagnating in the same place, Mr. Sudarshan said.

"If there is any area where the Communist Government has made any substantial progress, it is in the field of liquor ... In 2000, the CPI(M) shed its inhibition about liquor and today the Government is earning Rs. 1,000 crores from this liquid gold," he said.

Savarkar issue

Blaming the Leftists primarily for the Savarkar controversy, he said, ``this is not the first instance of image-wrecking by the `Marxputras.' They have been running down the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhash and others before also and today they are apologising for their mistakes. The question is whether the insult done to Savarkar will be remedied by restoring the plaque to its proper place. The Government of Bharat has to answer this question." Expressing concern over the squabbles between the different States, he asked, "is it not the time when a reappraisal of the entire political set up is needed?"

He regretted that the "good changes" brought about by the previous NDA Government in the field of education ``have been negated [by the new regime] by deriding it as saffronisation."

`Correct image'

During his hour-long one-to-one meeting with Mr. Advani, the RSS chief is understood to have advised him to "try to correct the image of the party ideology and idealism."

Mr. Advani is also understood to have been told to inject new blood into the various party positions with youngsters "untouched by the maladies of present-day degenerated politics," the sources said. — PTI

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