An officer and a pracharak? Centre to decide

Talking to Star News today, Advani said it is political parties which government servants are told to keep away from. But there are also some organisations which may not be political in nature but are supposed to be ideologically close to some or the other political party. 8220;The Government would examine what has to be done about them,8221; he said.

Advani termed the RSS a cultural organisation which had been endorsed by a number of court decisions as well.

Two major BJP allies, the DMK and Janata Dal U endorsed Prime Minister A B Vajpayee8217;s view that RSS was only a cultural organisation. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam DMK president M Karunanidhi, however, categorically statedthat government servants in Tamil Nadu would not not be allowed to join the RSS.

The Prime Minister8217;s remark that RSS was not a political organisation was an accepted truth, he said. However, he doubted that the RSS in the garb of a social organisation might indulge in politics. Another NDA constituent, JDU dismissed the hue and cry over PM8217;s statement as 8220;nothing but motivated orchestration by the Congress and the Leftists.8221;

JDU vice-president Jeevaraj Alva said that the Gujarat decision was a step in the right direction, which the Prime minister has rightly echoed. BJP leaders were happy to reiterate RSS8217;s apolitical nature.8217; 8220;RSS was banned thrice. One two occasions, the Government itself revoked the ban and on one occasion the court quashed the Government order,8221; BJP vice-president Jana Krishnamurthy told The Indian Express today.

The fact that the ban was revoked on all the three occasions proved that RSS was not detrimental to the country, Krishnamurthy claimed. Nobody had ever beenprosecuted merely for being a RSS member except during the Emergency when RSS was a banned organisation, he said.

Asked why the Centre can8217;t allow its employees to attend RSS activities if UP and Gujrat Governments can, Krishnamurthy said: 8220;Any Government is free to take its decisions whenever they feel it was needed8221;.

He, himself a former RSS pracharak, claimed that only 20 per cent of BJP members were drawn from the RSS, a stark contrast to the Jan Sangh days when 80 per cent of its members came from the RSS.

Opposition leaders are already up in arms against Prime Minister8217;s clean chit to the Gujarat government. The statement had exposed the BJP central leadership8217;s clear support to the State Government on the issue, said senior Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia. Calling the PM8217;s support of the decision 8220;deplorable and regrettable,8221; Scindia said that this was the second time the mask of the PM has slipped in Gujarat.

The first time, he said, was when he had given a clean chit to the stategovernment when Christian educational institutions were attacked by RSS-related organisations.