The BJP's by-now-open agenda of saffronising the country and its administration has found loyal support from its allies, strangely the loudest coming from the DMK. The very same party which ranted against the RSS philosophy of "one nation, one culture, one people" in the parliament not so long ago is today prostrating itself. The excuse being paraded for the gullible is that the RSS is not a political party, implying thus that government servants can participate in its activities.

Way back in 1948, the RSS engaged in deceitful compromises seeking a withdrawal of the ban that was imposed on it following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. One of the assurances that the RSS had to give at that time to Sardar Patel and the government of India was that it would not take part in politics. Hence, the term "cultural" was incorporated in the hurriedly drafted RSS constitution.

Since then, however, the RSS has always maintained a political front: if it was the Jana Sangh earlier, it is now the BJP. Mr Karunanidhi will do well to recollect that the RSS itself had admitted in its submission to the income tax authorities in Nagpur (misc. application, 17/1978) that, "it does not indulge in day to day politics though it has a political philosophy within its wide sweep of political work... The work of the RSS is neither religious nor charitable. It is akin to political purposes though the RSS is not at present a political party."

Even after such an open admission by the RSS, the BJP's current allies are willing to facilitate the RSS penetration into the administration.

These allies need to answer today as to how they can afford to overlook the conclusions of various judicial commissions that were set up from time to time to enquire into communal riots. Some of these were Justice Jaganmohan Reddy commission on the Ahmedabad riots (1969); Justice Madan commission on the Bhiwandi riots (1970); Justice Vithayathil's report on the Tellicherry riots (1971); Justice Jitendra Narain's report on the Jamshedpur riots (1979); Justice P Venugopal's report on the riots in Kanyakumari (1982); and finally, the Srikrishna commission report on the Mumbai riots of December 1992 and January 1993 in the wake of Babri Masjid demolition on December 6, 1992. All these commissions and committees have severely indicted the RSS for its role in instigating communal violence and spreading intolerance and hatred.