As the political fever rises with the Assembly polls for five States underway and the Congress vowing to "implement ban" on Government employees from participating in the activities of Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh (RSS), the RSS affiliate Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remove the ban provision from the Government service rules.
The ban on Government officials taking RSS membership and joining its activities was there but some States like Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh have them in service rules." After Keshubahi Patel Government took over in Gujarat in 2000, the provision was removed from the Service rules but in Madhya Pradesh it is continuing", said RSS functionaries.
Congress manifesto for the November 28 Madhya Pradesh polls in the State promises to ban 'Shakhas' of the RSS in Government premises and stop Government employees from attending RSS 'Shakhas'. Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh has said that the rule existed even under the Jan Sangh and BJP Governments in the State in the past, including the regimes of V K Sklecha, Kailash Joshi, Sunderlal Patwa, Uma Bharti and Babulal Guar and that the Congress was "only pledging to continue it."
RSS leaders maintain that it was already in the service rule but it was never implemented in letter and spirit. "Congress is for the first time promising to implement if it comes to power in Madhya Pradesh", they said. They remind that even during Jawahar Lal Nehru's time, several Congress members in the party's Central Working Committee were also members of the RSS.
The BMS has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi to have the service rule removed so as to lift the ban on the Central Government employees from working with the RSS.
The RSS outfit has appealed to the Prime Minister to intervene in the matter personally and direct the concerned Ministry to issue necessary amendments permitting the Government employees to participate in nation-building activities.
The Secretary-General of Government Employees National Confederation, affiliated to the BMS, in a letter to the Prime Minister on October 20, pointed out that in accordance with provisions of DP & AR OM No. 15014/3/(S)/80-Estt. (B), dated 28.10.1980, there is a ban on participating in the activities of RSS by the Central Government Employees.
"Through an order dated November 30, 1966, (by the Ministry of Home Affairs), the then Congress Government has imposed the ban on swayamsevaks, who work in various departments under the Union Government. Unfortunately, the order has been evoked time and again by the successive Governments", the letter said.
Pointing out that any person going against the rule invites "imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years or fine or with both", the BMS maintained that many Government employees interested in the RSS activities hold back on account of the fear of disciplinary action and "are not able to lend their hand in a genuine cause of Nation Building."