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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
Political parties on Thursday reacted sharply to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's proposal to float a new political front in Jammu and Kashmir.
RSS spokesman M G Vaidya had told newsmen on Wednesday that the RSS would soon float a new political platform to contest assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and its main agenda would be the trifurcation of the state.
However, on Thursday the RSS said though there was no proposal to float a new outfit in J&K, the organisation would support an alternative front that would take up its demand for the state's trifurcation.
The Jammu and Kashmir Nationalist Front has been spearheading the movement for the state's trifurcation and may play a pivotal role in the formation of such a front.
Alleging discrimination by successive regimes in Srinagar against Jammu and Ladakh, the RSS at its recently concluded national executive in Kurukshetra had demanded the trifurcation of the state with statehood for Jammu and a Union Territory status for Ladakh.
Harkishen Singh Surjeet, secretary general of the Communist Party of India, described the RSS plan as "diabolical."
"I have written a long and strong article against this concept. This is an American game plan and could have disastrous consequences," Surjeet told rediff.com in New Delhi on Thursday.
Sheikh Nazir, general secretary of the National Conference, described the RSS move as a "grave danger" to the security of the country.
"While we welcome RSS's decision to enter the political arena in Jammu and Kashmir, we are opposed to the trifurcation of the state. Will the Election Commission of India allow such elements to contest elections on such dangerous propositions?" he asked.
Former Union home minister and chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, said: "The RSS must give up this plan. This is something that has been rejected by Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani already. The RSS plan would not be acceptable to the Government of India because it is not in the interest of the country," the Mufti said.
Both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party too don't look all too enthused by the RSS's idea of trifurcation.
Meanwhile, sources in the pro-RSS JKNF said besides the Panthers Party and Akali Dal, the Bahujan Samaj Party and some Gujjar organisations have evinced interest in joining the new front.
Additional inputs from PTI
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