‘Sack all those who are against swadeshi’

‘‘Jo desh ko videshi vikas path par chalaana chahate hain, un sab ko padon se hatana parega’’ (Those who want to run the country on foreign model of development would have to be removed form their posts).’’

Addressing a gathering here today, attended by several ministers and senior BJP leaders including Ram Naik, Shanta Kumar, Sahib Singh Verma, V P Goyal, C P Thakur and Madan Lal Khurana, Sudarshan thundered: ‘‘Charter a swadeshi document of development.’’

He said there were ‘‘two streams of thought within the Planning Commission’’— one in favour of an unrestricted inflow of FDI and the other in favour of swadeshi. ‘‘Saffronisation is necessary,’’ he said, ‘‘to protect the interests, dignity and culture of the country.’’

The RSS chief said the economic policies being pursued ‘‘at the behest of WTO, World Bank and IMF are urban-based, high energy consumptive, capital intensive, labour displacing and ecologically destructive.’’

Earlier, it was a day for the RSS’s tryst with Mahatma Gandhi. Though long regarded as the antithesis of one another, the timing was appropriate, today being the Mahatma’s birth anniversary.

Sudarshan tried to appropriate Gandhi claiming that ‘‘we are following his principles,’’ by trying to disinherit ‘‘his so-called followers’’ for going against swadeshi.

For those who may believe that it was a one-way traffic, there was a pointed remark from Sudarshan: ‘‘Mahatma Gandhi had love for the RSS.’’ He based this on a ‘‘a parting compliment’’ given by the Mahatma after visiting a Sangh camp at Wardha.

Even as Sudarshan showered praises on the Mahatma, he faulted him for two mistakes. The first, his support to the Khilafat movement, which later gave rise to the demand for the creation of Pakistan, he said.

The second, the installation of Jawaharlal Nehru as the prime minister, ‘‘who put India on the wrong track.’’