Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati on Monday said the central government’s order lifting the ban on government employees from participating in RSS activities was a politically motivated decision to appease the organisation. She demanded its immediate withdrawal.
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
“The government’s decision to lift the 58-year ban on government workers attending RSS rallies is a politically motivated move to appease the RSS rather than in the national interest, to defuse tensions that have risen between them after the Lok Sabha elections over government policies and their high-handed attitude,” Mayawati wrote in Hindi on X.
Mayawati alleged that the RSS’s activities were political and electoral in nature in favour of a particular party. Government employees have to work within the constitutional framework, she said.
“However, the activities of the RSS which have been banned time and again are not only political but also electioneering for a particular political party. In such a scenario, the decision is unfair and should be withdrawn immediately,” she said in the post.
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
The Indian National Congress said on Sunday that a government order reportedly issued last week had lifted a ban on government officials from participating in activities of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological leadership.
Also read: RSS’s initial reaction to government employees order: ‘Baseless ban’
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya alleged that the government had in fact revoked the “unconstitutional” directives.
Opposition parties slam BJP government
Indian National Congress leader Shashi Tharoor called the move “very strange”.
“This is very strange. RSS work and government work are different and should not be combined. The Narendra Modi government did not change this rule for 10 years. So why change it now? Civil servants have the responsibility to work for everyone, for the entire country. This is unfair. After leaving government service, you can do whatever you want but while you are in the government you should remain neutral,” Tharoor told ANI in an interview outside Parliament on Monday.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi termed the order “shameful”.
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
“Earlier, ED, CBI, IT all wore khaki shorts and worked in khaki. Now they can speak out. It is shameful that today bureaucrats who are working for the Indian National Congress and the government and who should be promoting the Indian National Congress are working with their own ideology in mind. This is shameful,” she added.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said the order was against the unity and integrity of India.
“The office memo appears to indicate that the government has lifted the ban on government employees participating in RSS activities. If true, this is against the unity and integrity of India. The ban on the RSS exists due to its refusal to accept the Constitution, flag and anthem,” he wrote to X.
Owaisi alleged that RSS members have taken an oath to put Hindu supremacy above the nation, adding that no government servant can swear allegiance to the nation if he is an RSS member.
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
Meanwhile, the RSS hailed the BJP government’s decision and said the Congress government had baselessly banned government employees from taking part in the organisation’s activities.
Input from PTI, ANI
