Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mentor advocating peace efforts with Pakistan! And that too one year after Operation Sindoor launched by the Indian Armed Forces. It might sound unbelievable given the hardline and anti-Pakistan agenda driven by the current regime which had embarked on a hot-pursuit against Islamabad, ever since PM Modi’s futile attempt at extending an olive branch by inviting the then Pakistan Prime Minister Mr Nawaz Sharief to his swearing-in ceremony in 2014. And later a failed unscheduled but certainly not unplanned sudden visit to Lahore to attend a family function at Mr Sharief’s residence. 

Even after a decade, the insiders’ story on who advised Mr Modi to visit Pakistan contrary to his hardcore image, based on hyper-nationalism and Hindutva which was for everyone to see in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaign, has still to see light of the day. Or who fixed the timing for the same just in the beginning of his innings as Prime Minister. It did pay electoral dividend to the Modi-led BJP as it scored series of poll victories subsequently, pursuing the hardcore anti-Pakistan line. 

Nevertheless, it was a welcome move. It amplified the fact that the dialogue has no alternative. The only issue is how and when to hold peace talks. Here comes into play the surprise statement of one of the top leaders of the RSS. 

So, RSS general secretary Mr Dattaterya Hosabale’s recent call for peace talks with Pakistan took everyone, including a sizable section within the broader Sangh Parivar and hardcore Hindutva support base of the BJP, by surprise. It has given rise to questions whether the move is of the RSS’s own making or done at the behest of the current dispensation? Or more importantly, the RSS acted under an external pressure, ostensibly the USA given........

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