Nagpur: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which had recently engaged the Bharatiya Janata Party in an ideological "course correction" in the wake of the Jinnah controversy, said on Saturday that after the ascension to the top of leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, collective leadership was sidelined in the party.

Citing the example of his organisation where he claimed "collective" decisions were made, RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan said there was need for collective leadership in the BJP.

"Two leaders in BJP, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, had reached the top and collective leadership issue was sidelined," he told a group of journalists.

"We take collective decisions, not individual ones. RSS is a sun which gives light to everyone. It is up to you to use it," he said.

Mr. Sudarshan said he was a friend, philosopher and guide to the organisation and ruled out any change in its leadership, as there was no "such situation" at present.

Mr. Sudarshan also called for the complete "Indianisation" of the Constitution. "The Indian Constitution is a version of the British Constitution and all those laws need to be replaced to make it suitable to the country," he said. Quoting Babasaheb Ambedkar's statement in 1953, he said, "Even he [Ambedkar] had said that I will set afire the Indian Constitution at the first opportunity."

The first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a choice of British rulers and had influenced the drafting of the Constitution, Mr. Sudarshan added.

Mr. Sudarshan was apprehensive about the "rise" in the population of Christians and Muslims in the country. "If you go by the statistics, Hindus will be reduced to a minority in some years time," he said.

Reiterating his earlier stance, Mr. Sudarshan said Christian missionaries were indulging in religious conversion. "We are holding talks with them and trying to persuade them to refrain from it," he claimed.

To a query, he said Muslims in India were against terrorism and did not believe in extremism.

On the Ram Mandir issue, Mr. Sudarshan said the issue could come up during the RSS campaign of "swabhimaan." — PTI

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