Senior RSS leader Dattopant Thengadi, who is spearheading the campaign against the ruling coalition for straying from the path of Swadeshi in its economic policies, has disassociated himself from the task force, thereby dealing another blow to the Vajpayee Government.

To make matters worse for the Government, another member of the newly-constituted task force -- Khadi and Village Industries Commission chairman Mahesh Sharma -- too, besides raising other points, took exception to the decision to appoint Ahluwalia as the task force chairman.

The 14-member task force was constituted by the Government on December 2 in deference to the wishes of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who, in his address to the nation on theIndependence Day, had announced that the Government was committed to providing employment opportunities to 10 crore people over the next 10 years.

In a letter written on December 4, Thengadi, while thanking the Prime Minister for considering his name for the task force, expressed his inability to take up the job.

``The letter (informing him about the Government decision) is self-explanatory,'' Thengadi wrote in his short letter, adding, ``A person who has never lived in a village nor knows anything about the problems faced by the people residing in the villages has been made the chairman of the task force. It shows the Government's seriousness in tackling the problem.''

In his letter written to Vajpayee on December 19, KVIC chairman Sharma remarked: ``You're very soon going to appoint a senior person as the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission. If you consider it appropriate, you can simultaneously decide the leadership of this important task force. This will ensure better coordination andpolitical initiative. The proposed task force is lacking in this regard.''

He also suggested the inclusion of specialists in the fields of science and technology, agriculture, animal husbandry, arid land, water and forest management and small scale industries and representatives of the north-east, SCs and STs ``so as to make the task force more balanced.''

A senior member of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, the powerful economic arm of the RSS, took exception to the Government's audacity to make a leader of Thengadi's stature ``an ordinary member of the task force.''

``Thengadi ji has a first-hand experience in numerous fields, including trade union. How could you expect him to serve under Ahluwalia ?'' he reacted angrily.

He also questioned the Government's intentions, especially as it had failed to include any representative from the small-scale sector ``which employs the maximum number of people in the country.''