Beware of RSS Parrikar, caution ideologues

| 02 July 2002 22:33 IST

Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar's statement that he is a staunch swayamsevak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has evoked protests from ideologues here and Maharashtra.

It sounds bells of caution that Goa may follow Gujarat, now targeting the Christians here after experimenting RSS-infected power on Muslims in Gujarat, say these ideologues.

In an interview to a reputed national weekly, Parrikar has said he did not mind being both the RSS man and the chief minister at the same time, claiming that the RSS is not communal.

According to Dr Kumar Saptarshi, the Pune-based ideologue and president of recently revived Yuvak Kranti Dal, no person can be both at the same time, as the chief minister has to practice equality, which the RSS never practices.

Dr Saptarshi was down in Goa to deliver a lecture on the occasion of birth centenary year of Jayaprkash Narayan. He in fact also appealed to all the like-minded secular people to unite and counter the communal designs of the Sangh Parivar, especially when the RSS man is heading the state.

According to him, Parrikar is an efficient man and can implement the RSS agenda efficiently in Goa. He also recalled the way Parrikar had closed 50 primary schools in the state and then handed over the buildings to Sangh-sponsored institutions to run new schools.

Parrikar, in the same interview, has said that he plans to hand over 69 more such schools to the RSS or even the Church, if they come forward to run it. The RSS-run Vidya Bharati has already taken over such pre-primary schools this year.

Condemning the modus operandi, Datta Damodar Naik, another Goa-based ideologue feels the silence of the secular people has been misinterpreted, due to which Parrikar has gone to the extent of making the statement that he is the RSS-minded chief minister.

Dr Saptarshi feels no man can believe in both the Constitution of India which talks of secularism and the RSS which believes in Hindu Rashtra. "It means that Parrikar actually does not believe in the constitution", he adds.

Parrikar however claims that he is a real secular man, the reason for which even Goan Christians voted for him in the recently held fresh Assembly polls. Presently, he is running a coalition government, along with two regional parties, one among which dominates Goa's Christian belt in South Goa.

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