The Hindu : Front Page : Withdraw support: RSS

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Sunday, Aug 26, 2007
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Withdraw support: RSS

Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: After the Left-government confrontation on the India-United States nuclear agreement, the only “honourable course” for the Left parties is to withdraw support to the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), and for the Prime Minister to seek a fresh mandate.

This was the view of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) expressed in its organ The Organiser, dated September 2, which has just hit the news stands.

While the RSS and the BJP have criticised the deal, mainly on the count that it would hurt India’s strategic interests, the RSS has no sympathy for the Left criticism of the deal since it considers the communists to be “beholden” to China.

Left ‘justified’

However, The Organiser editorial said the Left was justified in its “posturing” on the deal, which was not part of the Common Minimum Programme worked out between the UPA and the Left when the government assumed power.

Clearly, the RSS view on the political crisis resulting from the stand-off on the nuclear deal is that since the two have entirely different views, the Left should withdraw support and the government should seek a fresh mandate.

The UPA, it said, was an “artificial front” which is now in “full-blown crisis.”

The editorial has charged the Prime Minister with deliberately showing a red rag to the Left by packing the Economic and Finance Ministries with pro-reformers.

It points out that Dr. Singh himself was earlier denounced by the Left as an International Monetary Fund man (a view not held by the RSS) and now, to the discomfiture of the Left, he has even tried to find a “non-existent schism in the Communist party of India (Marxist).”

Where the RSS line seems to be somewhat different from that of the BJP is that it welcomes a mid-term poll.

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