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Kalyan, Karunanidhi oppose govt officials joining RSS

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh Wednesday joined the protests against government employees joining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, saying that, for all practical purposes, it was a political organisation.

''It (the RSS) is a cultural and social organisation only in name. Every activity of the BJP is controlled by the RSS office,'' he told journalists here.

Singh's comments come in the wake of Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta's observation that there was no ban in the state on government employees joining the RSS.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had earlier supported the Gujarat government's decision to lift the ban and had said that the RSS was a cultural and social organisation.

Kalyan Singh said he was against permitting the government employees to join the RSS since, in a democracy, the administration is not supposed to be committed to any person, party or ideology.

Kalyan Singh, the Rashtriya Kranti Party chief, who was expelled from the BJP last year, said employees and officers would be compelled to donate hefty amounts to the RSS and those not doing so would be threatened with transfers.

He said the RSS was a political organisation for all practical purposes, choosing prime ministers and chief ministers and alloting Lok Sabha and Assembly tickets. In fact, every activity of the BJP is controlled by the RSS, he said.

In reply to a question, Mr Singh said he was "not in a hurry" to topple the Ram Prakash Gupta government. "Let the people compare the performance of this ministry with mine and decide," he said.

He said the conspiracy against the present incumbent had also started. Those conspiring against Gupta are the same people who could not become chief minister after removing him, he said.

Describing the UP Religious Places Bill as violating the Constitution, Singh said it would vitiate the communal atmosphere. Too much power in the hands of the district magistrate will increase the people's problems, he said.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi clarified on Wednesday that he was opposed to government servants joining the RSS.

Asserting that the media had misquoted his views on the RSS earlier, the chief minister, in a statement, said that though he accepted that the RSS was not a political movement but only a social organisation, it had indulged in politics like other parties.

He claimed that he had taken a stand that it could not be accepted that government servants would join the RSS, and that he continued to do so.

Karunanidhi said he would soon write to Vajpayee saying that the RSS matter needn't be made much of since the country faced other pressing problems.

He said he would also prevail upon the prime minister that the Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh governments which have allowed their government servants to join the RSS, need not be rigid about the issue.

UNI

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