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The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh number two, Dattatreya Hosabale, set the cat among the pigeons recently when he suggested that India should keep the “window of dialogue” open to Pakistan, even while emphasising people-to-people ties and civil society engagement. He observed that though Pakistan’s military and political establishment cannot be trusted, civic engagements through sports and science should continue.

Hosabale’s remarks collided head-on with the official position of the RSS’s own political progeny. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which runs the government of India, has taken an unambiguous line: “terror and talks cannot go together.” Since the Pulwama attack of 2019 and the subsequent Balakot air strikes, New Delhi has operated on the doctrine that there is no question of any dialogue with Islamabad as long as it continues to support terrorism against India. Communications and trade between the two countries remain suspended and both deny overflight rights to the other. The suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty following the Pahalgam attack of April 2025 and the military exchange that followed Operation Sindoor have hardened that position further.

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

There is little doubt that Hosabale’s perspective is not liberal, but fundamentalist. The RSS believes in the concept of Akhand Bharat – an undivided subcontinent – and its chief, Mohan Bhagwat, has declared that all those who live in Bharat are related to Hindu culture, Hindu ancestors, and Hindu land. For the RSS, Pakistan is not a foreign country in the deepest sense; it is an estranged part of a civilisational whole, and therefore always, in principle, reachable.

So who speaks for India on Pakistan? Obviously, the government of the day. But the RSS-BJP relationship has never been one of clean separation, and Hosabale is no minor figure. As Sarkaryavah (General Secretary), he is the organisational backbone of the Sangh. His remarks were not off-the-cuff; they were considered. That they diverge from government policy is either a sign of internal strategic debate within the Sangh Parivar, or a deliberate attempt to keep a back channel open at the ideological level even as the political track remains frozen.

After a period in which he tried to woo Pakistan – inviting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his inauguration in 2014 and after a surprise visit to Lahore to wish him for his birthday – Prime Minister Modi has taken a hard line towards Islamabad. This comes after a series of attacks – Pathankot in 2016, Uri in 2016, Pulwama in 2019 and Pahalgam in 2025, India has refused to maintain normal relations with its........

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