Return 'home,' RSS tells Buddhists

DUSSEHRA POLITICS

Without mentioning the touchy issue of relationship with the BJP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) today set out to embrace Hindu untouchables and recognise Bhimrao Ambedkar as its leader.

RSS chief K Sudarshan devoted a large part of his 10-page Vijayadashami speech in praising Ambedkar and in support of the theory that those who converted to Buddhism were Hindus and must return "home."

Although this was not the first time Sudarshan has asked Hindus to reintegrate untouchables into its fold, his use of such warm words for Ambedkar is a rarity. He recalled that when the RSS was "unfairly" attacked for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi and banned, it was Ambedkar who had come forward to agitate and get the ban lifted.

On the UPA government, he said although agriculture was in crisis, it was imported wheat from Australia at one-and-a-half times the cost of buying from farmers.

Sudarshan also criticised the manner in which the government was dealing with the US. He said US spies had been allowed to lure Indian bureaucrats into giving away India's strategic secrets with promises of jobs in American companies.

The US, he said, was targeting India as part of a strategy to lead emerging economies into indebtedness. Once indebted, these countries would then be forced to become military satellites, Sudarshan said.

He quoted a book by John Perkins to elaborate the conspiracy and cited the Indo-US nuclear deal as an example of India's "submission."

The RSS chief said the government had turned a blind eye to incidents of policemen collaborating with smugglers to help them deliver weapons for the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

On Pakistan, he was predictably harsh. "The whole world is saying that Pakistan is the fount of terrorism but our prime minister has given it a clean chit," Sudarshan said.