By IANS
New Delhi : The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government “chickened out under pressure” and shelved the Indo-US civil nuclear deal for fear of facing early elections.
In an editorial in the latest issue of its mouthpiece ‘The Organiser’, the RSS said till the other day it looked as if Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were prepared to stake their government for getting the Indo-US nuclear deal through. But suddenly, within hours of calling opponents of the deal “enemies of the nation”, the Congress “prevaricated”.
“This is a classic case of chickening out under pressure. The Congress has given in to the Left blackmail. Only the Congress was eager to take the nuclear deal to the people’s court in the hope of winning a mandate on a nationalist plank,” the editorial said.
“This was what some of its friendly psephologists advised the party, warning also that a delayed poll will see the Congress tally tumbling down. But the allies were not impressed. The RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal), DMK and the NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) prevailed over the coalition leader to backtrack. The communists were equally afraid of facing the electorate,” the editorial added.
The fear of the Congress is understandable, the RSS said, with essential commodities becoming scarce and the price-rise hitting the common man like never before.
Attacking its traditional foe, the Left, the RSS mouthpiece said: “The Left predicament is worsened by the raging rural riots against the CPI-M-supported ration shops in West Bengal. The party’s bourgeois character particularly under the UPA patronage is out in the open. The fear of a mid-term poll was enough for disciplining the Marxist bully. And the Congress charge that the CPI-M was more concerned about Chinese interest than national interest in opposing the deal had touched a raw nerve in the CPI-M leadership.”
The editorial stressed: “Bengal comrades, getting attuned to the neo-capitalist mould were too accommodating to the Sonia diktat. Yet the Congress made a climb down and dumped the deal in the cold storage. After aggressively advocating the deal as the biggest achievement of the UPA, Sonia Gandhi has suddenly dropped it as if it was only Dr Singh’s apolitical misadventure.”
Stating that the RSS does not support the Indo-US nuclear deal in its present form, the organisation has said that the manner in which the Congress has attempted to go on the backfoot on the deal has exposed it to charges of being a pawn of both the US and the “pro-China” CPI-M.
“The advise Prakash Karat (CPI-M general secretary) offered to the Congress was to learn coalition dharma from the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), the way in which that party allegedly put its core concerns in cold storage to run the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government for six years. The Congress also should forget about the Indo-US deal, he had said. By implication, the core concern of the Congress, according to Karat, is playing the US tune. By agreeing to heed to this advice for running the coalition the Congress has compromised all its self-respect,” the editorial reads.
According to the RSS, this is the beginning of the CPI-M game plan. “The CPI-M has levelled a charge sheet against the Congress accusing it of implementing only pro-rich policies and demanding probe into the wheat import scandal and failure in the execution of the National Rural Employment Guarantee programme. At the end of the day, other than its pet divisive agenda all that Manmohan Singh is left with as his legacy is this unsung deal in the dustbin,” the organisation has stated.