M A I N   N E W S

Vajpayee puts lid on RSS row
Says ban on govt staff to stay

PATNA, Feb 14 (PTI, UNI) — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today sought to put a lid on the controversy over government employees’ participation in RSS activities asserting that the Centre had no proposal to give such a permission.

“There will be no change in the existing laws....No such proposal is under our consideration,” Mr Vajpayee told reporters at Patna airport, a day after the RSS made it clear that it was up to the government to take a decision on the matter and that it had not sought any revocation of the ban.

The Prime Minister’s remarks assume significance in the wake of apprehensions expressed by constituents of the NDA including the DMK, the TDP and the Samata Party and the opposition campaign against the government on the issue.

Replying to a question on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his Tamil Nadu counterpart M. Karunanidhi voicing their opposition to the Gujarat Government’s decision allowing its employees to take part in RSS activities, Mr Vajpayee said “They have not exactly protested... They only expressed their views.’’ “But now the controversy has been settled with the RSS declaring it does not favour its members joining civil services,’’ he said.

The Prime Minister also ruled out the possibility of imposition of a nominee from Delhi on Bihar as Chief Minister in the event of the NDA coming to power in the state.

“The elected MLAs would choose their leader who would become the Chief Minister,’’ he said.

Earlier, addressing election rallies at Bhagalpur and Biharsharif, Mr Vajpayee said extremism in Bihar was the handiwork of “foreign elements” and assured that his government would do everything to control the menace.

Without elaborating who the forces were, he said Naxalite activities could not have assumed such “ominous proportions without the connivance of foreign powers”.

Asserting that Jammu and Kashmir was “an integral and inseparable part of India,” he said the country’s frontiers were fully secured after India handed out “ignominious defeat to Pakistan in Kargil”.

“The people of Kashmir have several times shown that they are part and parcel of the Indian nation..... It is improper and futile to rake up the issue again and again,” Mr Vajpayee said, adding the NDA regime was a “well wisher of the minorities and genuinely concerned for their uplift.”

Terming the first phase of polling in Bihar as “mrityudaan” (death penalty), the Prime Minister said the violence bore testimony to “sheer ineptitude of the RJD government to provide an effective administration”.

He said the central paramilitary forces made available to the state for fair and peaceful conduct of poll were not put to effective use.