BJP does a quick rewrite to mask RSS

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 19: On Tuesday, senior BJP leader and Home Minister L K Advani said the RSS is a moral influence on him. On Wednesday, ...

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 19: On Tuesday, senior BJP leader and Home Minister L K Advani said the RSS is a moral influence on him. On Wednesday, the party had to withdraw a press statement on minorities when it was pointed out that the statement reflected the RSS view point.

The first statement not only concurred with RSS chief K S Sudarshan8217;s views on 8220;Indianisation and swadeshikaran8221; of churches, but even went on to term those 8220;who do not accept the glorious cultural inheritance8221; as traitors.

8220;While creation of a swadeshi church has been recommended even by several Christian organisations themselves several times, in many countries along with China such churches have been established and Indianisation of Muslims does not mean that they should sever their connection with Islam,8221; the unsigned release said.

The veiled threat was in the next sentence. 8220;Those who do not accept the glorious cultural inheritance they are not faithful to the nation.8221; The statement did not explain what all the glorious inheritance8217; included.

The statement was withdrawn moments before the press conference jointly addressed by vice president Jana Krishnamurthy and secretary M A Naqvi. Later, it was released but not before deleting all offending references towards minorities.

Krishnamurthy initially, refused to comment on the issue. But when pointed out that this newspaper had the statement he said he would order an inquiry into the 8220;leakage8221; of the release.

Though BJP leaders today described the 8220;unsigned release8221; as unauthorised, it is not uncommon for the party to release unsigned press releases. The party had released a similar unsigned release last year in which Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani had owned responsibility, jointly with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, for sacking former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. It is another matter on being pointed out that the release had not been issued with his consent, Advani owned up the unsigned release as well.