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Cleanse administration of RSS supporters: Arjun Singh

REMEMBERING 1942: Freedom fighters at the national convention on secularism, organised by the AICC Freedom Fighters' Cell in New Delhi on Sunday, to mark the anniversary of the `August Kranti movement' of 1942. — PTI

NEW DELHI, AUG. 8. The Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh, today asked the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to cleanse the administration of people owing allegiance to the RSS, an organisation he accused of being responsible for the killing of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi.

``Our first duty is that the fascist forces of the RSS should be detected. Today, Government administration is in grip of the RSS, we have to cleanse it,'' he said at the National Convention on Secularism here.

The veteran Congress leader, who removed academicians close to the BJP and the RSS from panels drafting textbooks for schools, said the RSS had a strong hold on administration as ``men having sympathies with the Sangh Parivar were appointed (by the previous Government) on key positions.''

``If an institution's biggest achievement was killing of [Mahatma] Gandhi than you can expect what national purpose it can serve,'' he said calling for ``exposing the RSS-men'' in the Government.

``Not one but there are hundred different fronts of the RSS. They are getting crores of rupees from within and outside the country. The previous Government allowed foreign money to come in but now this web has to be broken. People should know for what purpose the money was used for,'' Mr. Singh said. The Minister hoped that ``the Prime Minister will take definitive action in the regard.''

`Ministers face problems'

The CPI general secretary, A.B. Bardhan, said Mr. Singh and the Information and Broadcasting Minister, S. Jaipal Reddy, were facing difficulties due to presence of a large number of ``RSS-men'' in their Ministries.

``Committees are filled with RSS-men. Raj hamara, Governor tumhara (its our government but the Governor is of RSS-BJP). How long will this last,'' Mr. Bardhan asked.

The CPI leader charged the BJP with propagating politics of hate and said the party had changed the word Hindutva with nationalism. ``Don't forget Hitler played havoc around the world in the garb of nationalism.''

Sachin Pilot, MP from Rajasthan, moved a resolution calling for a thorough study of the working of the RSS and countering its ``false propaganda and politics of hate and teaching secularism in schools''.

`Ballot revolution'

Mr. Jaipal Reddy, who presided over the convention, said the recent Lok Sabha election was a revolution through the ballot which defeated the fascist forces. ``It would be a revolution if we could sustain the momentum and could be rightly called a post-independent renaissance.'' He said India could not be a country of one religion or caste as diversity had been the underlying factor since pre-historic times of the country.

Challenging the RSS to prove the existence of any single ethnically homogenous society in the world, he said India's diversity was praised all over the world. Calling the BJP an `illusion' and the RSS the `reality', he said it was the strenuous efforts of Mahatma Gandhi that brought together all ethnic groups to fight for the freedom of the country.

Earlier, Nilotpal Basu of the CPI(M) said the fight for secularism was not over with the victory in the election. ``You have to continue to fight communalism, not just through elections but in all spheres of life.'' — PTI

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