Sangh Parivar

Senior BJP leader LK Advani on Saturday
lamented that the RSS "has been a most misunderstood patriotic organisation"
both in pre and post-Independent India, despite having been a move- ment that
"transformed the society and thousands of youngsters." "The RSS has really been
a movement that trans- formed the society (in gener- al) and thousands of young-
sters (in particular). Unfortu- nately, the RSS has been a most misunderstood
patriotic organisation both in pre and post-Independent India," Advani said.
Advani was shar- ing the platform with RSS chief KS Sudarshan at a book release
function organised at KC College auditorium in south Mumbai in memory of late
Sangh Parivar func- tionary Jhamatmal Wad- hwani. In his address after releasing
a book Rashtra Aaradhak written in memory of Wadhwani, Advani said that people
like Jhamatmal Wadhwani had worked hard in trying to remove the mis-
understanding among people about the RSS among the peo- ple. It was rather sad
that the "misunderstanding" contin- ued to persist among sections of people.
Advani and Sudar- shan heaped praise on Wad- hawani for his immense con-
tribution to in "building" the RSS in Sindh province in the pre-Independent
India, and in Mumbai and several parts of the State and the country
subsequently. Meanwhile, charging that the Indian Constitution had miserably
failed in fulfilling the aspirations of the people, Sudarshan exhorted the BJP
to work towards effecting drastic changes in the Consti- tution to make it suit
to the needs of the country. Sudar- shan said that the late Dr B R Ambedkar was
himself not happy with the Constitution that he had drafted. He quoted late
Ambed- kar's observations made in this regard during debate in the Rajya Sabha
on Septem- ber 3, 1953, to buttress his point. Ambedkar had said: "Peo- ple
always keep on telling me, so you are the maker of the Constitution. My answer
is I was hack. What I was asked to do, I did much against my will. I'm prepared
to say that I shall be the first person to burn it. It does not suit anybody."
The RSS chief pointed that the country's Constitu- tion framers had "borrowed"
heavily from the Constitu- tions of other countries, par- ticularly Britain.
"Given the diversity of India, our existing Constitu- tion should be changed
drasti- cally and are necessary to bring about political stability in the
country," he said.