Season for hawks to sheath claws: BJP, RSS team on way to Pakistan

Seven leaders from the Sangh Parivar, three from the RSS and four from the BJP, are expected to join a 50-member delegation scheduled to lea...

Seven leaders from the Sangh Parivar, three from the RSS and four from the BJP, are expected to join a 50-member delegation scheduled to leave for Islamabad on August 9.

Incidentally, the BJP had neither joined the team of MPs which went to Pakistan in the recent past, nor had it received the delegation of MPs from Pakistan which had come to India.

The Indian delegation will participate in a ‘‘peace dialogue,’’ slated for August 10 and 11, as part of a South Asian Parliamentary Conference.

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Pakistan journalist Imtiaz Alam, who is here co-ordinating the visit, said the delegation will include leaders from the Congress, Telugu Desam, Samajwadi Party, CPI, RJD and Lok Janshakti Party, military experts, diplomats and journalists. Alam accompanied Fazal-ur-Rahman during his India-visit.

Sources said the three-member RSS delegation would be led by former spokesman M G Vaidya. RSS spokesman Ram Madhav, when asked about the RSS participation in the delegation, said: ‘‘We have been sounded on the visit, but we have no invite yet. We are open to the idea of sending a team to Pakistan, but we would announce our delegation only when an invite comes.’’

Sources close to BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu said the party’s team would comprise S S Ahluwalia, Balbir Punj, Anadi Charan Sahu and Vijayendra Pal Singh, all MPs.

Ahluwalia and Singh, when contacted by The Indian Express, confirmed that they had been told by the party leadership that they would be deputed to Islamabad.

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Sources said credit for the this change goes to Jamiat chief Fazal-ur Rahman, who, during his meeting with Prime Minister Vajpayee, suggested that the BJP send a team. Rahman’s meetings with RSS leaders H V Seshadri, Madan Das Devi and Ram Madhav on the one hand and VHP chief Dalmia and vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore on the other here on July 21 have gone a long way in setting the stage for the return-visit.