Modi government is RSS government, says Yechury

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury Thursday termed the Narendra Modi regime an "RSS government" and accused it of promoting interest of "private business" in the land acquisition ordinance.

Participating in the motion of thanks on the President's Address in the Rajya Sabha, Yechury alleged that the "worst form of vote bank politics" was being practised under the National Democratic Alliance government.

Disagreeing with remarks of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders who distanced the government from some controversial remarks of Rashatriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat, Yechury said: "RSS is not an external force."

He said Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said during a conference in Delhi that he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will remain RSS volunteers till they were alive.

"Clearly this is a RSS government," Yechury said, referring to the "Ghar Vapsi (homecoming)" programmes of some Hindu groups and Bhagwat's purported comments that Mother Teresa's service to the poor was aimed at converting them to Christianity to contend that these showed lack of commitment to democracy.

The CPI-M leader said that the country can only remain united by strengthening commonality.

"You are imposing uniformity. That cannot be allowed," he said.

Yechury said that the ordinance brought by the NDA government to amend the land acquisition act allows setting up of private educational institutions and private hospitals.

"Why are you doing this for business. That is where you are permitting their interest," he said.

He also took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party over its defeat in the Delhi assembly polls, noting it had won only in those states where there was anti-incumbency and the opposition was divided.