RSS wants to launch 'second war of independence' against MNCs

The Rashtriya Swayam sewak Sangh has denounced the United Front government for permitting multinationals to enter infrastructure areas like power sector and telecommunications.

The RSS's three-day all India general council -- the Pratinidhi Sabha -- which ended on Sunday evening passed a resolution to wage a 'second war of independence' against foreign companies, mentioning that the indiscriminate permission to MNCs in the power and telecommunications sectors poses a great threat to the national interest.

K S Sudarshan, the RSS's joint general secretary, said Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram's exhortation to MNCs to invest in India is a humiliation of and insult to those who laid down their lives in the freedom struggle. This kind of open invitation to multinationals, Sudarshan added, amount to dishonouring the talent, intellect and achievements of Indian scientists and technologists.

The RSS convention also castigated the UF government for signing the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade and for endorsing the Singapore agreement, thereby allowing multinationals to set up an industry in any sector and in any member nation of the World Trade Organisation.

The RSS -- which is the guiding spirit of the Sangh Parivar, the saffron brotherhood which includes the Bharatiya Janata Party -- felt the Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited was cold shouldered by the government even though it had established its competitive edge, high standards of technical expertise and bagged contracts abroad, in the power sector . Instead of using BHEL's expertise, the RSS moaned, the government had invited foreign companies to work in the power sector by providing them 16 per cent counter guarantee benefits.

Though the resolution made no direct reference to the Enron power project in Maharashtra which was cleared by the BJP-Shiv Sena government in the state, two documents submitted for the consideration of delegates attending the convention clearly referred to the controversial project which was earlier scrapped by the BJP-Sena government and ultimately given its approval later on.

A three point charter of demands passed by the RSS general council declares that foreign companies should not be encouraged and promoted at the cost of Indian talent and capability not only in the consumer sector but also in the fields of energy, communications, mining, insurance, agriculture and atomic energy.

Another resolution criticised the central government for not paying serious attention to the issue of infiltration of Muslims from Bangladesh and activities of Christian missionaries in the North-East. The North-East states, the RSS noted, have become training and arms distribution centres for Pakistan's Inter-State Intelligence agency.