PATNA, FEBRUARY 10: CPI-M general secretary, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, on Thursday charged the BJP with trying to "smuggle" its own agenda (of RSS) in the name of the national agenda and cautioned other National Democratic Alliance (NDA) constituents against the "disastrous consequences" the country was destined to face if such "sinister designs" were not checked.Surjeet told a press conference, where copies of his open letter to NDA allies were also circulated, that the "studied silence" being maintained by NDA allies on the decision of the Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh governments lifting the ban on participation by government employees in the activities of the RSS, was "disastrous"."If the BJP is allowed to pursue its agenda, it can lead to a dangerous situation and the consequences can be disastrous. is disruptive of national unity and threatens the identity of different nationalities that constitute the Indian union," he said.Surjeet appealed to NDA partners to offer resistance to such measures and see that the BJP was not smuggling in its own agenda (of the RSS), in the name of national agenda.Criticising the recent statement of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee justifying the lifting of the ban on participation of government employees in the activities of the RSS by Gujarat government, Surjeet said Union Human Resource Minister Murli Manohar Joshi had said the lifting of the ban could also be applied to Central Government employees too.Though the cabinet would have to take a decision, his colleague, Union Home Minister L K Advani had also joined in giving "his seal of approval.""All these indicate a clear departure from the national agenda for governance that the constituents of the NDA had committed themselves to," he said adding the BJP had to veer around to the idea of an NDA agenda as it knew that it would not be possible to gather allies with controversial issues like Ayodhya, Article 370, Common Civil Code included in his manifesto.The CPI-M Leader accused the BJP of creating an impression among the alliance partners of the NDA that the BJP would not submerge their identities and adhere to the ideas of secularism and defence of unity."But the recent statement of PM that the RSS is a social and cultural organisation must have surprised many (NDA allies)," he said.
