Move cautiously, don’t skip core agenda: RSS to BJP

Dinesh Manhotra/Vikram Sharma 

Tribune News Service 

Jammu, February 10

The Sangh Parivar has suggested to the BJP leadership to move cautiously while deciding on government formation with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 

The much-publicised meeting between leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP at New Delhi this evening decided not to take any hasty decision on the crucial issue.

The high-level meeting was held at the Pandit Deen Dayal Research Institute (DDRI), New Delhi, under the chairmanship of Krishan Gopal, RSS’s Sah-Srakaryavah, who coordinates between the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. Manmohan Vidhya, Akhil Bharatiya Parsar Parchar Parmukh of the RSS, also attended the meeting. The meeting held threadbare discussions on the prevailing political situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources said the Central leadership of the Sangh Parivar had made it clear to the state BJP that the national interest should be the priority while re-stitching the alliance with the PDP in the only Muslim-majority state of the country. 

“Although the RSS is not averse to the idea of restitching the alliance with the PDP, the BJP leadership was cautioned that a wrong message should not go that the party has sacrificed its core agenda for enjoying power,” a source said.

The source said all issues related to the state were discussed threadbare in the three-hour-long meeting which started at 5 pm today.

Besides state BJP leaders, senior leaders of the J&K RSS Ramesh Pappa, Prant Prachark, Brig (retd) Suchet Singh, Prant Sangh Chalak and Purshotam Dadhichi, Prant Karyavah, attended the meeting.

The Sangh Parivar —- a conglomeration of various organisations affiliated with the RSS, is of the opinion that political situation in the sensitive state should be handled cautiously because J&K has always remained as the core of Parivar’s ideology. 

Sources said that during the meeting, Sangh leadership cautioned that accepting new conditions set by the PDP at this point of time would send a wrong message to the cadre so it would be better to buy time to convince the PDP leadership not to impose any preconditions for restitching the alliance. 

Sources said the Central leadership of the Sangh Parivar also sought the progress report of the BJP ministers in the coalition lead by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

After the impasse over government formation and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti pressing on inclusion of confidence-building measures in the new format, the RSS, which has been so far watching the developments, has taken over the discussions.