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Distrust cause for rift, says Govindacharya

Special Correspondent

`There is mismatch between expectations and performance'

KOCHI: The former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary and Hindutva ideologue K.N. Govindacharya has said that `distrust and the rupture of dialogue' between the `political leadership' (BJP) and the `mass base' (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) have led to the current conflict between the two.

Mr. Govindacharya, who left active politics and went on a sabbatical after he was allegedly sidelined by the BJP top brass some years ago, was answering a question on the crisis in the relationship between the RSS and BJP leaders, at a news conference here on Monday.

`Syuppies'

He said there was a mismatch between the `expectations' (of the RSS) and the `performance' (of the BJP). Hinting at his displeasure at the alleged clout of ambitious professionals and upper-middle class youths in the BJP, Mr. Govindacharya referred to them as `Syuppies' (saffronised upwardly mobile young people). Asked for his comments on the `remote control' of the BJP by the RSS, he said each of the Sangh Parivar affiliates should be `self-sufficient and self-dependant,' but at the same time they should be `attitudinally cooperative'.

`Anti-human'

Mr. Govindacharya, who is known for his criticism of economic liberalisation and globalisation, said liberalisation had increased rural poverty and unemployment. He conceded that it had reduced urban poverty a bit, but at the cost of increasing crime and pollution. He said globalisation was `anti-nature and anti-human' and was destroying society. Even in the West, mega-multinationals, which promote globalisation, work against the interests of the people. They make profits by outsourcing work and thus denying jobs to the locals.

He said his concept of Hindutva was non-sectarian; but, asked how he viewed the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 when he was a general secretary of the BJP, Mr. Govindacharya said: "It was neither political nor religious; it was a civilisational issue."

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