M A I N   N E W S

Karunanidhi shifts stand
PM’s views on RSS ‘right’

CHENNAI, Feb 8 (UNI, PTI) — In a major shift in his stand, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President M. Karunanidhi today endorsed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s view that the RSS was only a cultural organisation.

Talking to newsmen here, Mr Karunanidhi, however, categorically stated that government servants in Tamil Nadu would not be allowed to join the RSS.

The Prime Minister’s remark that the RSS was not a political organisation was an accepted truth, he said. However, he expressed the doubt that the RSS in the garb of a social organisation might indulge in politics.

Some outfits in the name of social organisations, were indulging in politics and the RSS could also be one such organisation. But he was not aware of its activities in the state.

“We will not allow” was Mr Karunanidhi’s one-line reply when asked why the Tamil Nadu Government could not allow its employees to become members of the RSS if he claimed that it was only a social and cultural organisation.

When pressed further, a visibly annoyed Mr Karunanidhi said: “We will not allow ... Let them (RSS) obtain permission from the court”.

Mr Karunanidhi said in Tamil Nadu, government servants could not enter politics and the ban was correct.

Asked specifically whether he accepted Mr Vajpayee’s statement that the RSS was not a political movement, he said just as the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) founded by rationalist leader late E.V. Ramasamy was a social organisation, “I accept that (the Prime Minister’s remark) also”.

“Both (the DK and the RSS) are calling themselves as social organisations. But both are not the same...We (the DMK) have come from the DK”, he added.

When repeatedly asked how he justified the ban on government employees joining the RSS in Tamil Nadu when he himself described it as asocial organisation, the Chief Minister said if the government servants joined the RSS, then the government would examine the issue.

Asked whether he would categorically say that the RSS was not a fundamental organisation, Mr Karunanidhi, who refused to be provoked, remarked that each religion has its own political party.

Since some of the parties were based on religious faith, they could not be dubbed as fundamentalist. Just because the Muslim League was functioning in the name of Islam, how could it be a religious fundamentalist party, he asked.

Mr Karunanidhi’s stand on the RSS was in sharp contrast to what he had said a fortnight ago about the Gujarat Government’s decision to allow its employees to become members of the RSS. He had then said the decision was totally unacceptable and that the Gujarat Government should withdraw its order.

Mr Vaiko, General Secretary of the Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK), an ally of the DMK-led National Democratic Alliance in the state, had also vehemently opposed the Gujarat Government order.

The MDMK and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), another partner in the NDA front, are yet to react to the Prime Minister’s view.

Policy to be ‘reviewed’

NEW DELHI, Feb 8 (PTI) — Home Minister L.K. Advani tonight indicated that the government would review the policy barring government employees from participating in activities of the RSS and similar organisations.

“Ordinarily it is only political parties which government employees are advised to keep away from. But in the past few decades, there have been restrictions (on employees joining) organisations which may not be political but which are supposed to be ideologically close to some of the political parties,” Mr Advani told a TV channel. “What to do in that regard will be examined,” he said.

Talking on the same subject to another private news programme, Mr Advani said at a particular time, some social and cultural organisations affiliated with communists were banned, but the restrictions were lifted later.