Congress allowed Reds to pollute academic bodies: Venkaiah Naidu

Hyderabad: Coming down heavily on the Left parties and the Congress, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said the Communists took control of higher academic bodies by taking ‘advantage’ of Congress' weaknesses and ‘polluted’ them with their ideologies, but the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had started a process to ‘cleanse’ them.

Stating that the Congress and the Communists had an understanding in this, Naidu said the NDA government had started a process to ‘cleanse’ these institutions from their influence. Naidu was responding to a question over the criticism that the BJP-led government was appointing persons with RSS leanings in the leading institutions.

The Congress and the Communists had an understanding of convenience as per which the latter came to dominate higher education institutions and Central bodies, he said. “It is a baseless criticism of Communists that persons of RSS leanings are being appointed in educational institutions. Communists had control of these. They polluted the environment with the Left ideology by taking advantage of Congress’ weaknesses.

• The Union Minister refutes Communists’ charge that Centre is appointing people with RSS leanings in leading institutions

When it is being cleansed to some extent, they are indulging in a disinformation campaign. It needs to be understood,” he told reporters here. “In many educational institutions, Central institutions and universities, when Congress became weak in 1969 and sought the cooperation of Communists, they came to some sort of understating, like a quid pro quo, that we will give you political support and you give us this opportunity (to control these bodies).

They are feeling bad now that they are losing their monopoly. (Under BJP government) opportunities are being provided to all, and persons with merit are appointed and those with nationalistic outlook are given opportunities,” he said. Ever since it came to power, both the Left and the Congress had been vociferous in their criticism that the NDA government had been packing leading academic and cultural bodies with people oriented to the RSS with the intention of infusing their ideology into their activities, he said.

Replying to a question on the proposal to hike salaries of MPs, Naidu said he was not the decision-making authority and that a conference of party Whips (in Parliament) to be held in Visakhapatnam would discuss the matter. “It's a Whips conference wherein they are going to discuss this proposal.

The proposal is to refer the issue to a commission. We are a democracy, we have to discuss various suggestions and take up necessary action. Finally, it is the government and Parliament which take the final call,” said Naidu, who handles Parliamentary Affairs Ministry among other portfolios.