New Delhi, April 18 :    New Delhi, April 18:  The BJP has slammed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) founder Dattopant Thengadi for calling finance minister Yashwant Sinha names at a public rally here on Monday, bringing into the open the war between the two major Sangh parivar outfits. BJP general secretary Narendra Modi issued a press statement late last night, expressing 'deep dismay at the disapproval of the economic policies of the Vajpayee government by Shri Dattopant Thengadi'. He added that while the party welcomed 'constructive criticism from any quarter, especially from those who belong to our ideological school', the 'content and tenor of Shri Thengadiji's censure of the NDA government in recent times, culminating in his objectionable speech at yesterday's BMS rally, leave us with no option but to counter his criticism'. Modi released the statement only after a formal go-ahead from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and home minister L.K. Advani, perceived to be closer to the Sangh. Interestingly, the BJP earlier chose to ignore Thengadi whenever he went after the government, as on the Sankhya Vahini data base project. This time, BJP sources said, the top brass considered it 'appropriate' to counter his allegations publicly because the government was already under attack from the Opposition on Tehelka. It was feared that the Sangh's criticism would add grist to the Opposition's mill. 'Our internal problems don't usually come out into the open, but sometimes circumstances leave us with no choice,' the source added. In the Delhi rally, the architect of the BMS - the RSS' labour wing - called Sinha a 'criminal' for usurping the labour ministry's constitutional rights. He was referring to the finance minister's announcement in his last budget speech that industrial units employing up to 1,000 workers were not required to seek official permission while retrenching workers. He also accused Sinha of 'suffering from amnesia' once he became the finance minister. The context was the alleged short shrift given to the swadeshi lobby by Sinha after he assumed the post with the help of the RSS and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch. But instead of placating the swadeshis, Sinha went full steam ahead with reforms and ushered in the phase of 'second generation reforms' in a bid to outdo the Narasimha Rao regime. Thengadi did not spare Vajpayee either. He began his speech with an allusion to the media's capacity for 'image-building', and quoting from management guru Peter Drucker's book, Beware of Charisma, said: 'A country cannot progress merely by building one or two persons' image. Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini are examples of image-building destroying personalities and their organisations.' Without directly countenancing this criticism, the rest of Modi's statement held a brief of the Vajpayee government's economic policies. 'The BJP, which is a leading constituent of the NDA, is uncompromisingly committed to protecting and promoting the nation's economic interests,' it said to dilute Thengadi's charge that Balco was sold for a song and that bureaucrats were deliberately turning healthy PSUs into loss-making units.