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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, March 28: That the “role” of the RSS in the current government will be under scrutiny in the days to come was evident today. If there was one refrain in most of the Opposition speeches today, it was the “relationship” between the RSS and the BJP.
P Shiva Shanker and P A Sangma, both of the Congress, referred to the “hidden agenda.” Laloo Yadav bluntly said that the RSS was the “mother and the father” of the BJP. Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar referred to the book, We, the Nationhood Defined, by the second RSS chief M S Golwarkar. Chandra Shekhar alleged that going by the extracts, the RSS was “clearly pro-Hitler and against giving Muslims equal treatment in India.”
It was at this stage that Home Minister L K Advani intervened to say that Golwarkar had already retracted this part of his statement. Advani also got up to intervene when a negative reference was made to the Sangh family by Jaipal Reddy of the Janata Dal. He said that the BJP was associated with “people who wantedConstitutional status to the caste hierarchy,” a reference to late Swami Vamdev of the VHP, an RSS outfit.
At this, Advani retorted: “I don’t think he ever said that. And even if he had said that, we dissociate ourselves from that.”
In fact, this public dissociation of the BJP from the RSS was also an important point in Vajpayee’s reply when he said that the government had no hidden agenda. “I have differed on many issues from my friends in the past. We are not the types to get remote controlled,” he said. He, however, said that the RSS would be “consulted” on major issues, adding: “However, we will take our own decisions.”
