RSS shakhas: Sonia urges President to intervene

New Delhi, Sep 28 (UNI) Congress President Sonia Gandhi has said that the Madhya Pradesh Government order allowing government officials to participate in the ''shakhas''of the RSS and its other activities was ''illegal and violates both the letter and spirit of the Constitution.'' ''I am informed that the Governor of Madhya Pradesh was kept completely in the dark by the State Government while it took the policy decision that has far reaching implications and repurcussions,''Ms Gandhi said in a letter to President A P J Abdul Kalam, delivered to him by a delegation of Congress leaders which met him at the Rashtrapati Bhawan earlier in the day.

Ms Gandhi recalled that a similar order had been issued by the Government of Gujarat in January 2000 when she had written to the then President K.R.Narayanan on January 17,2000, who took up the matter with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Subsequently, the Gujarat Government was persuaded to withdraw its order removing the ban on its employees participating in the activities of the RSS, she noted.

Ms Gandhi, in her letter, emphasised that it was of utmost importance to maintain social cohesion and communal harmony in the country's diverse society at all times.

''To allow Government employees to participate in the activities of an organisation that has had a long record of stoking religious prejudices, inflaming religious passions and polarising our society is a dangerous move and will not be in the national interest,'' she observed.

''It is also a move that goes against the principles of ourt administrative machinery being independent and unbiased, Ms Gandhi said, and requested Dr Kalam to intervene in the matter and have the MP Government's decision reversed at the earliest.

UNI YS VD GC1930