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Gujarat sought Centre's opinion before lifting ban on RSS, says Pandya

Sheela Bhatt in Bombay

The controversy over the Gujarat government lifting the ban on its employees joining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was actually the result of a political miscalculation by the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership.

Many senior BJP politicians were 'unhappy' with the Keshubhai Patel government's decision, claiming to have been kept in the dark on the move.

But Gujarat Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya told rediff.com in an exclusive interview yesterday (before the government rescinded its controversial circular): "We were considering this issue since last year. On June 17, 1999, we wrote a letter to the Union home ministry. We wanted some clarification on the ban on the RSS. We got the reply on July 13, 1999. That letter from the home ministry quoted the judgment of Justice Bahri and clarified that according to the judgment the RSS is not involved in unlawful activities."

The judgment was given in a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

According to Pandya, "We never thought this would become such a big issue. In fact, the circular lifting the ban was issued on January 3, 2000, but neither the state Congress nor the Delhi Congress uttered a word against it. Their reaction later was unnatural. They took it up because of the election in some states."

According to Pandya, 33 other organisations face a similar ban order in Gujarat and the state home ministry regularly receives representations against these bans and requests to lift them.

Kashiram Rana, member of Parliament from Surat and a minister at the Centre, and many BJP MPs from Gujarat had written to the state government, requesting it to withdraw the ban on the RSS. The list of taboo organisations was last updated in 1986. So the MPs had a point when they asked the government to reconsider the list, Pandya said.

Rana's formal request was forwarded to the Union home ministry for clarification. "They sent us the judgment of the high court judge who was heading the Unlawful Activities Prevention Tribunal during the regime of P V Narasimha Rao," Pandya said. In fact, the RSS has published a booklet containing more than a dozen such judgments from various high courts.

Defending his government, Pandya told rediff.com, "Why don't people look around? Ban or no ban, there are so many government officers who are going to shakhas. Whenever action has been taken against them, court judgments have mostly gone in their favour. We had done our homework. We never thought the issue would get blown out of proportion like this."

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