Want development in Dakshina Kannada? Kick out RSS: Mattu

Mangaluru, Aug 28: Veteran journalist and thinker Dinesh Amin Mattu has called upon the people of Dakshina Kannada to kick Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) out of the district to put an end to communal violence and see development.

Mattu, who is now media adviser to Karnataka Chief Minister, was speaking at the 11th Mangaluru city conference of the Democratic Youth Federation of India on Sunday.

He accused the RSS of holding campaigns to polarise voters on caste and religious lines that will help the BJP.

Citing reports of RSS leader B L Santosh leading the proposed “Mangaluru Chalo”, from September 5 to Spetmber 7, by the BJP Yuva Morcha, Mattu said that the people of the region should demand RSS hatao. “One can see development in the coastal district only if RSS moves out,” he said.

Recalling his younger days that he spent in Dakshina Kannada, Mattu said that a lot has changed in the last three decades and the district has turned into a communally sensitive region.

“The educational and religious institutions, which made this land known for communal harmony, are now the cause for making this a communally sensitive region.” Mattu said that it was important to have a prolonged ideological fight against efforts to destroy religious and cultural diversity.

Mattu said that Hindu religion has not been revived by the Hindutva leaders like Pejawar seer, Mohan Bhagawat or Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat. The real Hindu ideology has remained intact owing to the efforts of revolutionaries like Swami Vivekananda and Narayana Guru.

He asked why the self-acclaimed Hindu leaders do not speak on untouchability and superstitions, which are being used to exploit poor in the name of religion and God.

Mattu opined that the Congress party should return to history to reestablish the ideology of secularism. “In the pre-independence era, the national leaders had a unanimous ideology of patriotism till the concept of party-based leadership thrived. But, now, the party leaders get into publicity and maintain higher level contacts to gain grassroot-level command. Those who did not care about caste have now been maintaining that caste is a necessary identity. The Congress has to return to the era of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi who stood up for secularism in the nation,” he said.

Mattu also asked why the critics of the Indira Canteen have not been raising a hue and cry on tax exemption of Rs 42 lakh crore for industrialists and loans to the tune of Rs 10 lakh crore which has been raided-off. In comparison to these, the Rs 2.5 lakh crore, which is inclusive of all kinds of subsidies for poor is meagre, he pointed out. He condemned the privatisation of public enterprises like BSNL.