NEW DELHI: A much talked about meeting of the Congress (I) working committee here early this week failed to throw up any specific plan of political or administrative action to fight rising Hindu fundamentalism. The meeting had been called amid media speculation that India’s human resources minister, Arjun Singh, would lock homs with prime minister Narasimha Rao on the latter’s soft attitude towards the R.S.S. clan and for the demand that Rao was too inept to handle both prime minister’s and Congress(10 president’s posts. The three session meeting, according to observers, was marked by the absence of any significant support base for stronger action against Hindu fundamentalism. Arjun Singh who represents a small lobby advocating confrontation with R.S.S,,B.J.P. and allies was isolated with no one openly lending support to his crusade against the Hindu fundamentalists. In fact, at times he was jeered at by members close to Rao such as Sita Ram Kesri, also a minister in the central Indian government. However, to satisfy critics the working committee passed a formal resolution condemning the activities of the R.S.S. clan and directed that a plan of action be drawn up within a few days to counter the menace of communalism. This plan will be forwarded to state and district committees for implementation. Evidently no specific action is being planned at the government level to ban the B.J.P. and Shiv Sena or to enforce the ban already imposed on the R.S.S.
The party decided to hold a session of the A.1.C.C. on March 2728 at Faridabad in Haryana “immediately after Ramzan” as if the party had great love for Muslims.
Observers here feel that while the meeting staved off an immediate crisis in the party, the fact is that differences still persist among top leaders on how to meet the challenge posed by Hindu fundamentalism.
The proceedings of the C.W.C. were marked by a frank 30minute speech by Arjun Singh who reminded Rao of his observation at the Trupati session of the A.1.C.C. soon after his takeover last year when he said he was assuming the twin offices reluctantly, Also, Arjun Singh recalled the prime minister’s resolve on that occasion to fight the forces of communalism, Despite this, the party’s government neither could prevent demolition of the Babri masjid nor large scale violence against Muslims at Bombay and elsewhere in the country.
Instead of paying serious attention to the need for stepping up the fight against R.S.S. fundamentalism, the prime minister encouraged his loyalists to criticize Arjun Singh for projecting his anti R.S.S. views in public, In this connection the C.W.C. decided to form disciplinary panels of the party so that men like Ajun Singh do not make statements critical of Hindu fundamentalists and lack of effective action against them.
Most traditional loyalists of Delhi had a field day, Several Congress(I) members of Parliament belonging to Punjab led by Surinder Singla mounted attacks in a newspaper statement on Arjun Singh.
But many Punjab M.P.s like Harchand Singh and others denied they had anything to do with the statement against Arjun Singh issued on their behalf by overenthusiastic Singla. Bhajan Lal of Haryana too made a scathing attack on Arjun Singh.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 12, 1993
