The Hindu : RSS against polls under Farooq Govt.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 05, 2002

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RSS against polls under Farooq Govt.

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI JULY 4. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh said today that in view of the past experience it did not think that elections in Jammu and Kashmir under the Farooq Abdullah Government could inspire confidence.

While it was not demanding the imposition of President's rule, "our view amounts to that (bhavna wahi hai)'', the RSS spokesman, M.G. Vaidya, said. If elections were held without the present Government in power, the response of the people would be good.

Another issue that is exercising the RSS — the mother organisation of the Bharatiya Janata Party — is the new Government policy on foreign direct investment in print media.

"We are against unrestrained FDI in any economic activity in principle. We are totally against FDI in education and information,'' Mr. Vaidya said in a statement. However, there was a catch. "We can have a different point of view if non-resident Indians want to enter this segment,'' he added.

There is a view that the Government policy on FDI in print media is not wholly transparent as it has reserved the right to clear proposals on a "case-to-case basis''. The RSS view made clear today raises the suspicion that the Government would like FDI to flow through the various friends of the BJP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and similar organisations of NRIs.

The Sangh Parivar had pointed out that if the Government thought it fit to cap FDI in print media at 26 per cent with further safeguards on editorial control and even management control built in it, "similar restrictions should be applied to the electronic media.''But it was on Jammu and Kashmir that the RSS was especially exercised — its working committee had passed a resolution on the issue at the just concluded meeting in Kurukshetra.

Rejecting the argument that the trifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir favoured by the RSS would be playing into the hands of Pakistan, Mr. Vaidya said the demand was not along communal lines. "The Jammu region comprises three districts which are Muslim majority areas and it is wrong to suggest that our line helps the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf.''

He did not deny that the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, L.K. Advani, when in the Opposition, favoured trifurcation using arguments identical to those extended by the RSS. "Ask him why he has changed his views, you are addressing the question to the wrong person,'' Mr. Vaidya said to a query.The RSS also said it was against laws in Jammu and Kashmir, which allowed Pakistani Kashmiris to settle there, become citizens of the State and get voting rights even when they do not have Indian citizenship. "This should be challenged, and I believe the Home Ministry is challenging this in the courts.''

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