UNI

New Delhi, Jun 27: Expressing strong disapproval at the way the BJP had grown over the years, the RSS has advised the party to become ''cadre-centric'' and liberate itself from the ''malice of five-star culture,'' offering the services of five to seven senior 'pracharaks' to take the saffron party 'back to the basics.'

The advice was tendered to the BJP leadership during the meeting of top RSS and BJP leaders that took place at the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's residence last week, a RSS leader, who was present at the the meeting, told UNI.

He said the RSS leaders had ''bluntly'' told the BJP that ''though it was difficult to achieve this goal and it would be a time-consuming process, it was the only way to make the party ride back to the power at the Centre once again.'' The RSS has offered to lend five to seven pracharaks to the BJP to execute its plan and take the party ''back to the basics''. These pracharaks, who are barred from taking part electoral politics, will join the BJP team during the next two to three months.

If the BJP feels that these pracharaks should fight elections, than they will have to give up their RSS position to contest the polls, the leader said.

''The RSS is happy that its advice on leaving the decision making process to the 'Core Group' of the BJP and involving senior leaders like Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, who had been relegated to back seat during the tenures of M Venkaiah Naidu and L K Advani, has been accepted. Dr Joshi was entrusted the task of coordinating the week-long protests at Jammu against the genocides carried aginst the Hindu population in Doda and Udhampur districts by the terrorist elements,'' he said.

However, officially, both sides maintain that the discussions were without any fixed agenda and the outcome was not to be disclosed publicly.

Among those who attended the meeting included Leaders of Opposition in both Houses of Parliament L K Advani and Jaswant Singh, BJP President Rajnath Singh, former BJP Presidents Murli Manohar Joshi and M Venkaiah Naidu, and senior leaders like Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Sushma Swaraj besides General Secretary Sanjay Joshi from the BJP and RSS General Secretary Mohan Bhagawat and Joint General Secretaries Madan Das Devi, Suresh Soni and Suresh Joshi.