The RSS on Sunday said that a change of rule in the country had become absolutely necessary. “This (UPA) Government is famous for corruption. It should go. Every sector in the country is facing difficulties under this Government,” said RSS Sarkaryavah (national general secretary) Suresh Joshi in Kochi.
“The present Government has been a failure in all sectors. An alternative should come up in the next lok Sabha polls. That alternative is coming,” Joshi told newsmen on Sunday at the conclusion of the three-day Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal Baithak (national executive council meet) which had started in Kochi on Friday.
Refusing to be dragged into arguments over whether the RSS would declare open support to the BJP in the coming lok Sabha polls, Joshi said that the Sangh would launch a campaign from January to ensure that every voter got enrolled in the renewed voters’ list and also that hundred per cent votes were cast in the election.
“There will be a mass mobilisation to make sure that every eligible citizen’s name finds place in the voters’ list. Also, voters have the responsibility to elect a responsible Government. They have to fulfil that obligation. Attempts would be made to ensure that every voter who has found place in the list fulfils his obligation,” Joshi said.
Joshi rejected the allegation that the RSS had played a pivotal role in the selection of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the BJP-led NDA’s prime ministerial candidate by saying, “It was the BJP which selected its prime ministerial candidate. The Sangh has no role in it. Also, we are not a political party to take decisions on elections.”
The three-day national executive meet, in which about 375 top functionaries of the Sangh from all over the country participated, decided to oppose the UPA Government’s plan to introduce the Communal and Targeted Violence Bill in Parliament. “The RSS had opposed the idea of the Bill earlier. We are opposing it now,” Joshi said.
A statement issued by the meet said the Bill was “highly biased, unlawful and dangerously anti-Hindu”, seeking to divide the society on majority-minority lines which was unconstitutional. “Such a Bill, if enacted, will destroy communal harmony and cause immense damage to the social fabric of the country,” the RSS meet observed.
The meet criticised the Centre for “retrieving this draft legislation from cold storage” saying that the attempt seemed to be part of the usual vote-bank politics. “Instead of preventing communal violence, it will only lead to further divisions on communal lines thus creating further disharmony,” the Sangh national executive warned.
The Karyakari Mandal Baithak held detailed discussions on the issue of development and environmental balance in the context of the threats being faced by the country’s environment in general and the Western Ghats ecosystem in particular and came to the conclusion that there should be action to immediately reverse the trend.
The meet criticised the Government for dumping the recommendations of the panel headed by ecologist Madhav Gadgil for saving the Western Ghats instead of placing them before the people for discussions. A statement issued by the meet said that the proposals of the K Kasturirangan panel on the Western Ghats were inadequate to meet the goal.
The Baithak had on its first two days adopted resolutions regarding the increasing threat of Jihadi operations, particularly in Kerala and other South Indian States, and the need for a bolder and more comprehensive border policy to ensure better security of the country’s borders and to enhance the living conditions of the people living in border areas.
Sarkaryavah Joshi said that the Sangh had started Shakha activities in 2,500 more places in comparison to October, 2012. About 6,000 places had weekly or monthly Shakhas, Joshi said, adding that about 50,000 villages had daily, weekly or occasional Shakha activities and the total number of RSS contact places had gone up to 75,000.
The Baithak was inaugurated by Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat last Friday at the Bhaskareeyam Convention Centre adjacent to Madhav Niwas, the Kerala RSS headquarters, at Elamakkara in Kochi. This was the first time the meet was held in Kerala.