Minister defends decision on RSS

HYDERABAD, JANUARY 31: Gujarat Home and Border Security Minister Haren V Pandya on Sunday strongly defended the Keshubhai Patel government...

HYDERABAD, JANUARY 31: Gujarat Home and Border Security Minister Haren V Pandya on Sunday strongly defended the Keshubhai Patel government8217;s decision to allow the State Government employees take part in the activities of the RSS and accused the Congress of raking up the issue to derive political mileage.

Speaking to mediapersons here, the minister, however, made it clear that no employee would be compelled to associate himself with the RSS. quot;We merely excluded RSS from the list of banned organisations as it had been established that the organisation was not resorting to any unlawful activity,quot; he said.

Stating that the previous Congress government included RSS, along with 36 other organisations like Anand Marg, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and several Majlis groups in the banned list in 1986, Pandya pointed out that RSS was rendering social and humanitarian service.

He lashed out at Congress for trying to whip up passions among the people with an eye on the coming Assembly elections in four states. quot;By lifting the ban on RSS, we have not directed any one to come closer to it. Moreover, every employee has a right to participate in social service,quot; he said.

The Gujarat minister explained the efforts made by the BJP government to check infiltrators from Pakistan. Gujarat has a 500km long land boarder with Pakistan and a 1,000km long coastline which is closer to the Pakistani seas.

Besides creating a separate department for border security, the Keshubhai government had taken a host of measures to prevent entry of Pakistani infiltrators, smuggling of narcotics, and circulation of fake currency notes. The ISI wanted to use Gujarat as a route to the other parts of the country, he said.

He said that a three-layered border protection network was in operation in the State comprising the Boarder Security Force, Border Wing Home Guards of the State Government and the police. Due to the joint efforts of these three, several infiltrators were caught in the last two years.

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Aware of the alarming proportions of the fake notes, the Gujarat government had sought RBI8217;s cooperation and other agencies to detect the origin and extent of operations of the gangs behind the racket. quot;So far, we could nab two gangs involved in it,quot; he said.

Pandya was here to meet the non-resident Gujarati NRGs who have settled in the State since several years. The Keshubhai Patel government had decided to take action to safeguard the interests of NRGs. According to Pandya, there are about 1,00,000 Gujaratis in Andhra Pradesh.