PM gives RSS tough lessons on Water

Referring to RSS deputy chief K S Sudarshan’s concern over the supremacy enjoyed by English over Hindi and other Indianregional language after more than 50-years of independence, Vajpayee said, “the issue would have been resolved if Hindi was given status of national language next day of country’s independence. Nothing can be done at this stage”.

Vajpayee’s views would sure have pleased the anti-Hindi crusaders down south while coming as a shock to Sangh Parivar leaders who believe in ultra-nationalism. Sangh Parivar already has differences with him over the Government’s economic policies and the two seemed to have patched up when Vajpayee certified RSS as a cultural organisation which could rope in Government servants as well. The honeymoon between the two seemed to be coming to an end now.

Terming Sudarshan’s speech as "serious and worth pondering on", Vajpayee proposed that people should take everybody along even if they were unable to understand Hindi. “No one should do anything which breaks the bond of love and brotherhood among people”, he aaid.

Underlining his reported differences with the Sangh Parivar, thePM said, “You people may not necessarily agree with me. But, these are my views”.

The entire top brass of the Sangh including its chief Rajju Bhaiya, VHP general secretary Ashok Singhal, VHP joint secretary Acharya Giriraj Kishore, Delhi state president Satya Prakash Bansal besides senior BJP leaders like L K Advani, Anant Kumar, Arun Jaitley, Narendra Modi, Ram Naik, and V P Goel heard the first face-to-face confrontation between Vajpayee and RSS leadership in rapt attention.

Sudarshan had earlier obliquely charged Vajpayee of continuing Nehruvian economic policy which was urban-centric and westernised and not following Gandhian-rural-centric swadeshi-oriented-economic policy.

He clearly defined Hindutva-supporters and Hindutva-baiters as those rooting for Bharat and India respectively. While the former found the country a multi-lingual, multi-racial and multi-cultural society, the latter described it as one-nation, one-language and one culture society, Sudarshan said.

Vajpayee replied by referredto the Lok Sabha debate on language issue. “It was a serious controversy which almost led to a break up of the country. But the issue was resolved while respecting everyone’s sentiments”, he said. Vajpayee refered to another LS debate in which a member demanding an answer to his question in Hindi, was told by a Minister that Hindi was a foreign language to him. “Despite such wide propogation and publicity of Hindi, if somebody does not understand Hindi he should not be given the impression that this is not his country”, the PM said.

“We will have to cooperate and understand each other to solve all problems being faced by the country while according top priority to nation’s unity and integrity”, he concluded.