RSS plea in Tamil Nadu HC against bias in history lesson
The Madras High Court has issued a notice to the Education Secretary and Director of School Education of Tamil Nadu, on a petition filed by an RSS activist seeking deletion of a lesson in a history book that linked the organisation with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. The controversial observation is found in the history book prescribed for higher secondary students. Justice D. Murugesan admitted the writ petition filed by the RSS Prant Sanghchalak, Shri R.V.S. Marimuthu and issued notices to the two authorities returnable in two weeks.
According to the petitioner, lesson 19 in the book attributed the killing of Gandhiji ?to a Hindu fanatic and member of the RSS, Nathuram Vinayak Godse?. He said this was ?absolutely false and baseless? and that the imputation was ?intended to bring disrepute to the RSS by falsely twisting and distorting history?. Neither the RSS nor any of its members had been implicated in the investigation and judgment relating to the murder of Gandhiji, the petitioner said, and contended that if the lesson was taught, it would create a wrong impression about the RSS and cause damage to its reputation and goodwill. ?Even the subsequent commissions and committees constituted to go into the conspiracy of killing of Gandhiji had never given any findings or reports on the alleged involvement of the RSS,? he said. The objectionable portion had been included deliberately with a view to lowering the moral character and credibility of the RSS in the students? minds. He sought a court direction to the Director of School Education to issue suitable instructions to all concerned to not to teach the lesson in question and direct the Government to delete the portion as published in the textbook forthwith. (FOC)
Sahakar Bharati national executive to meet in Jaipur
National executive of Sahakar Bharati will meet in Jaipur from November 13 to 15. About 140 delegates from different parts of the country are expected to participate in the meet. According to Shri Suryakant Pandurang Kelkar, organising secretary of Sahakar Bharati, a proposal will be brought in the meeting to amend the existing cooperative laws. Akhil Bharatiya Sampark Pramukh of RSS Shri Hastimalji will also be present at the meeting.
Sahakar Bharati was registered as an organisation on January 11, 1979, in Mumbai with a view to strengthening the cooperative movement in the country. ?Though, the British government tried to develop a different kind of cooperative movement in India by enacting a law in 1904, it is because of this law that there is a greater interference of government in this sector and people'sinvolvement has reduced. The political interference has further deteriorated the condition. Sahakar Bharati is of the opinion that the cooperative law should be amended with immediate effect,? Shri Kelkar said.
He also said the existing cooperative laws were against the values of cooperation and also against the Constitution of India. ?We feel the cooperative sector should be autonomous and free from political and government interference. It is not the Sahakar Bharati alone but all the organisations working in this sector that have been demanding an amendment in the cooperative laws,? he said adding that Sahakar Bharati did have works in almost all the States and in certain States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, etc. it had produced good results. The first national convention of Sahakar Bharati was organised in December 2003 and the second convention will be held in Delhi in November-December next year. (FOC)
?Appeasement won'thelp nation building?-Dr Surendra Jain
Dr Surendra Jain, national secretary of VHP, has strongly criticised the appeasement policy of the government towards minorities. He was speaking at a function organised by J&K unit of Sanskar Bharati in Jammu recently. He termed reservation of 50 per cent seats for Muslims in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and move by some other States to grant reservation to Muslims in government jobs, a move that would produce disastrous results. Warning against the setting-up of Islamic university in Kashmir, he said its role could be no less than AMU, which sowed the seeds of Partition.
Making a scathing attack on Central Government for granting a clean chit to the so-called moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference, he said how one could term Hurriyat ?nationalists?, which is responsible for killing of hundreds of Hindus and exodus of lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley. Dr Jain also condemned the role of Central Government for granting permission to Hurriyat leaders to visit Pakistan. He alleged that the people responsible for killing of hundreds of Hindus in J&K and for the exodus of lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits are being invited for talks, while the aborigines of the Valley who nourished the land of Kashyap rishi for thousands of years together are being ignored.
Dr Jain said how the Union Government can trust leadership of the conglomerate which led the anti-India demonstration in Kashmir against death sentence to Afzal Khan who is involved in attack on Parliament. Expressing concern over the plight of Hindus in J&K, he said they are presently being treated as second-class citizens and this will be the condition of the majority community throughout India if they don'trise to the occasion.
-Khajuria S. Kant in Jammu
