Rss Invitees Sing Pro-Liberalisation Tune

Cadres of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), expecting some swadeshi sabre-rattling and anti-liberalisation vitriol at their meeting yesterday, was stunned to find that the two invitees at the occasion taking the line whether we like it or not, liberalisation is here to stay.

The RSS had organised a meeting on Swadeshi and the current economic policy for professionals, the vast majority of those gathered being sympathisers of the RSS ideals.

The drift of the function was such that the main speaker for the evening, Madan Dasji Devi, a senior sangh functionary and the likely successor to Rajendra Singh as the RSS supremo, cut a lone figure on the dais. But when his turn came, he roused the audience with his anti-liberalisation tirade and the RSS cadre sprung back to life, shouting Shame Shame at the governments policies. The invitees, Rajendra Prasad, the former director finance of Oil India, and K S V S Manaian, a senior accountant at a private firm, while doing some plain speaking to the assembled rashtriya swayamsevaks said that economic liberalisation cannot be wished away and is a compulsion of the moment.

Manian pointed out that he did not consider swadeshi to be an economic term and said the most important thing is to be self-sufficient. Before he ended his speech, he borrowed a Gandhis quote and stated his view on religion: The best of all religion is my religion.

Madan Dasji Devi said the liberalisation of the economy was done at the behest of the Fund-Bank combine and vehemently opposed the opening up of the insurance sector, fearing Indians would lose control over their economy. He explained that the foreign insurance companies would come to control domestic savings, which they would in turn lend to the industry.

Hence, savings and extension of credit to the industry would be in the hands of the MNC insurance firms.

He crticised the government for not taking the people into cognizance before choosing the path of liberalisation. ends.