bjp-l-digest Saturday, October 11 1997 Volume 01 : Number 398
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News, Opinion, Analysis and Publications Digest
Today's Topics
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RSS will take 5-S mantra to people
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Date: October 10, 1997
Source: Asian Age
Subject: RSS will take 5-S mantra to people
By Bishwanath Ghosh
New Delhi: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh will
launch a nationwide mass-contact programme in
January, the time when the BJP expects the next
general elections.
The campaign will be held from January 12 to 26 and
RSS pracharaks will go door-to-door in every
village to "rekindle the spirit of patriotism." Mr
Srikant Joshi, all-India prachar pramukh of the
RSS, told The Asian Age that "We want to create the
feeling of patriotism. It is 50 years since
Independence and we are still slaves of foreign
culture."
On a day's visit to Delhi, Mr Joshi, however,
denied that the RSS had anything to do with the
BJP. "It is a political party and our work goes on
irrespective of it. We wanted to raise the issue of
Hindutva and we have done it. Now no one can
withdraw this issue. We are concerned about people
and not political parties," the Nagpur-based senior
RSS leader said.
Mr Joshi said the RSS campaign would focus on five
S': Swadesh (own country), Swadeshi (indigenous
products), Swavlamban (self-dependence), Swabhasha
(Indian languages) and Swasanskriti (Indian
culture).
"Large chunks of our territories are occupied by
other countries. China has 1,31,000 sq km of
Arunachal Pradesh, Pakistan has one-third of
Kashmir and parts of Kutch, while Bangladesh has
been given away Teen Bigha and Berubari. We want to
get back those territories," Mr Joshi said.
"Some of these territories were given away even
without a war. We will ask the government to do
something about it. But for that, we have to first
create a public opinion," he said.
On Swadeshi, Mr Joshi said India had "copied" the
Russian model for the last 50 years and, as a
result, the poor had become poorer. "We should go
in for indigenous technology. There is nothing
wrong in taking some country's help for the sake of
our progress, but we should not sell ourselves. For
example, we have four mints in India but our coins
and currencies are still imported."
He said the RSS favoured only those MNCs which
contributed to India's growth and did not harm the
indigenous industry. On Swavlamban, Mr Joshi said a
country can be "totally free" only when it is
self-dependent."
The RSS leader said only four per cent of the
Indian population spoke English and yet the people
were forced upon with the language. "There are so
many Indian languages which are neglected. Our
campaign will highlight this," he said.
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End of bjp-l-digest V1 #398
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