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Bhagwat likens Vajpayee to Hitler

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has committed ''high treason'' by disclosing the operational policies of the Indian Navy in his election meetings, according to dismissed naval chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat. He said Vajpayee disclosed the navy's operational policies during an election meeting on Tuesday at Sumerpur in Pali district of Rajasthan.

Anyone who discloses the operations to be conducted by any wing of the armed forces is guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act, he said. Talking to reporters in Jaipur last evening, he charged the BJP-led government with ''politicising'' and ''communalising'' the armed forces in the manner of the Third Reich.

Secret ''orders'' have been sent to the ministry of defence by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Akalis for the posting of certain officers, he alleged. Further, 20,000 rakhis have been sent to army jawans with the BJP's lotus symbol on them and the tilak ceremony for jawans has been done in public when it is mandatory for such functions to be held in the army's temples only, he claimed.

Admiral Bhagwat said he would campaign against Vajpayee in Lucknow and Defence Minister George Fernandes in Nalanda as ''these two are in conspiracy to reduce the armed forces as their lackeys.'' The former naval chief warned that if the National Democratic Alliance gained power, it would spell the end of democracy in the country.

The NDA's gameplan bears striking resemblance to that used by Hitler in Germany, he said. The sinister designs of the BJP could be gauged from the manner in which history is being taught in Saraswati Vidya Mandirs. ''Re-writing history to suit their vested interest and mutilating historical facts to communalise the minds of the young should be an eye opener for all to the future plans of the BJP,'' the former admiral argued.

Referring to the politicisation of the armed forces by the BJP, Admiral Bhagwat said that for the first time, the three service chiefs had attended the meeting of the executive committee of any political party. Furthermore, it was for the first time that portraits of the three service chiefs were used at an election meeting. The former naval chief cautioned the electorate against the BJP's designs, saying the party was playing with the religious sentiments of the majority community to create a state where religious freedom would be the first casualty.

UNI

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