Hindutva

[acharya]

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Jan Sangh to be revived if BJP fails to fulfil vedike’s demands</b>

Raviprasad Kamila

Jan Sangh loyalists have agreed to support revival plans: Rama Bhat

‘Members of RSS, vedike are unhappy with BJP’s style of functioning’

Operation Lotus criticised



K. Rama Bhat

PUTTUR: K. Rama Bhat, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and leader of the Swabhimani Vedike, has said that the vedike leaders will revive the erstwhile Jan Sangh and later develop it into an alternative to the BJP, if the latter failed to fulfil its demands.

In an interview to The Hindu here on Friday Mr. Bhat had said that loyalists of the erstwhile Jan Sangh had extended support to the vedike for the revival of the old organisation. Once revived, it might attract workers from the BJP also, he added.

The Jan Sangh took its birth as the political wing of the Rashtraya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to express its views after the Government banned the RSS following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. Later, the Jan Sangh merged with the then Janata Party and its symbol froze. Subsequently, leaders who were supporting RSS ideologies came out of it, and formed the BJP. Mr. Bhat (78), said that the groundwork on reviving the Jan Sangh was under way. He was in touch with some old-time leaders at the national level in this regard, he said.
Members unhappy
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Stating that he was still a member of the BJP, Mr. Bhat said that many members of the RSS and BJP were unhappy with the “style of functioning of the BJP” in the State.
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Asked if the Jan Sangh would, after revival, attract people from all communities, including minorities, Mr. Bhat said he was against polarisation in society. “Those who are loyal to the country are welcome to the Sangh. Any enemy to the country is my enemy,” he said.

Mr. Bhat said that the constitution of the RSS did not allow its cadre to interfere in the functioning of any political party, including the BJP. It could only play an advisery role. A majority of minorities in the country were loyal to the nation. Only a few, who had been misled by others, were indulging in anti-national activities, he said.

On the attacks on Christian prayer halls and moral policing in the district, he said: “It is wrong to take law into one’s hands”. Mr. Bhat criticised the BJP for its “Operation Kamala” in the State. If it did not have majority, it should have occupied the Opposition benches. “Even Opposition members can serve people better than the ruling party members,” he said.

Mr. Bhat is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Dakshina Kannada as an independent candidate after the negotiations between vedike leaders and the BJP and RSS failed.

Mr. Bhat won the 1983 Assembly election from Puttur constituency on the BJP ticket.

In 1978 Assembly elections, he had won from the same constituency on the Janata Party ticket. However, Mr. Bhat lost his Lok Sabha election in the erstwhile Mangalore constituency in 1984 against B. Janardhana Poojary of the Congress.


http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/28/stories/...890300.htm