The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, January 16, 2001,
Chandigarh, India

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RSS to explain position today
Stand on minorities
From T.R. Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan 15 — In a bid to reduce tension between the RSS and the Sikh Panth, the National Commission of Minorities will have a full-fledged meeting with RSS leaders here tomorrow.

The first-ever interface between the NCM and the RSS is taking place at the initiative of NCM vice-chairman Tarlochan Singh. Concerned about the dangers of a sharp divide in religious matters holding dangerous portends in Punjab, Mr Tarlochan Singh had written two letters to RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan.

Mr Sudarshan has replied to Mr Tarlochan Singh and is believed to have put the record straight that the RSS has no intention of vitiating the atmosphere in Punjab. The four-page hand-written letter by Mr Sudarshan on January 11 is said to be highly conciliatory aimed at putting to rest any misgivings that the clerics or the Sikh community might have following the highly provocative utterances by RSS activists in Punjab.

The exchange of views at the NCM headquarters on Tuesday is expected to cover the entire gamut of issues which the RSS maintains must occupy the centrestage irrespective of the national agenda of governance adopted by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government.

Since its biggest ever conclave in Agra in October, the Sangh Parivar has sought to belittle the national agenda of governance by putting intense pressure on the BJP that it should revert forcefully to the issue of the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, abrogation of Article 370 according special status to Jammu and Kashmir and putting in place a uniform civil code.

The seven-member NCM headed by Justice Mohammad Shamim which has just returned after a tour of Karnataka firmly believes that it would like to hear first hand the views of the RSS on issues of national importance and discuss ways of strengthening the forces of communal harmony rather than hurting the susceptibilities of the minorities and creating an avoidable law and order situation. Besides Mr Tarlochan Singh who is the vice-chairman, the other members of the NCM are Shamim Kazim, Lt Gen A.M. Sethna, Rev T.K. Tulku, John Joseph and Vijay Kumar Dar.

According to RSS sources, its leaders will meet the NCM and clear any misgivings about its stand on the minorities. The NCM is disturbed about the general impression gaining ground in Punjab over the past two months that the RSS is disturbing the balance by trying to interfere unduly in the affairs of the Panth.

Various shades of opinion in the Akali Dal have taken strong exception to the alleged plan by RSS volunteers to enter gurdwaras to preach the Ramayana. Some leaders in Punjab have gone to the extent of saying that the RSS wants to terrorise all minorities in the country in pursuit of Hindutva. Some Sikh organisations have also suggested that RSS volunteers should be restrained from spreading false propaganda in the villages and towns of Punjab.

At the RSS mahashivir held in Agra in October, the organisation declared that it will go all out to create social pressure aimed at facilitating the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. It warned the BJP that any party which isolates itself from the temple issue must bear the consequences.

About Christians, the RSS said the community should accept that there is salvation outside the church. This has been interpreted as a shift in its policy of having Swadeshi churches. The RSS leadership was shrill in observing that if the Trinamool Congress and the Samata Party as partners of the NDA, can pursue their own agenda, why should the BJP fall back in achieving its avowed objectives.

I demolished mosque: Tripathi

NEW DELHI, Jan 15 (UNI) — Mr Ayodhya Prasad Tripathi of the Manav Raksha Samiti today claimed that he was instrumental in demolishing the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya and demanded he alone should be tried in the case.

Submitting an affidavit to the Liberhan Commission of inquiries here today, Mr Tripathi said though he had submitted an affidavit regarding his claim to the CBI court in Lucknow, he was not summoned before the commission.

Pointing out that 23 of the 49 accused had contended before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court that they had neither demolished the mosque nor conspired in the act, he said this was done to “enable the court to pass an order that anti-social elements demolished it and as such the same be rebuilt at the disputed site ignoring our attached affidavit”.

“Why people like Mr K.S. Sudarshan and Ms Nirmala Deshpande, who are in league with the Muslims, were promptly summoned by the commission while I was not,” he asked.

He said though he published the affidavit in his fortnightly magazine “Mujahana” and also sent its copies to the government, the Crime Branch of the Uttar Pradesh Police and various newspapers, no one questioned him on the filing of the affidavit.