A delegation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) met senior functionaries of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in New Delhi on Tuesday, a day after holding discussions with senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders at the party’s headquarters.
While the BJP described the engagements as routine diplomatic outreach aimed at strengthening dialogue, the Congress questioned the timing and purpose of the meetings, alleging that China asserted claims over the Shaksgam Valley in Jammu and Kashmir shortly after the closed-door interaction with BJP leaders.
RSS Calls It A Courtesy Interaction
According to a senior RSS functionary, the Chinese delegation, led by Sun Haiyan, vice-minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (IDCPC), and accompanied by Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong, had sought the meeting with the Sangh.
“The Sangh has always been open to meeting people from all ideologies and faiths,” the functionary said. “They had expressed their desire to know more about the Sangh and met Dattatreya Hosabale, the general secretary of the Sangh. It was a courtesy call.”
The RSS declined to share details of the discussions. The functionary also noted that such interactions were not unprecedented, recalling that after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014, a delegation from the Chinese Embassy had similarly paid a courtesy visit to Sangh leaders.
Political Pushback And Opposition Criticism
Senior BJP leaders also refrained from disclosing specifics of the meeting, reiterating that the delegation’s visit was purely courtesy-driven. A party functionary said diplomatic engagements had increased since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan last year.
“This meeting was aimed at further enhancing relations and dialogue,” the BJP functionary said.
The Congress, however, raised sharp questions over the outreach. Congress leader Pawan Khera said dialogue itself was not the issue. “There’s no problem with the meeting. There’s no problem with the dialogue,” he said. “The problem is with the BJP’s hypocrisy, duplicity, fraudulence and deceit.”
Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav also attacked the BJP after reports of the CPC delegation’s visit to the RSS office. Writing on X, Akhilesh questioned the BJP’s long-standing campaign against Chinese imports, asking whether the party had “turned foreign while preaching swadeshi”.
