RSS claims meeting with Amit Shah, BJP union ministers not for “coordination”

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has claimed that its ongoing meeting with BJP President Amit Shah and six BJP Union Ministers—Rajyavardhan Rathore, JP Nadda, Maneka Gandhi, Mahesh Sharma, Prakash Javadekar and Thawarchand Gehlot—is not a coordination meeting but an exercise for interchange of ideas.

Shah along with the six cabinet ministers had on May 28 met top functionaries of the RSS around completion of four years of the Narendra Modi dispensation to deliberate on government programmes and policies, including the much-awaited education policy.

"These are not Samanvay (coordination) meetings, neither are these decision-making meetings," RSS all-India prachar pramukh Arun Kumar said in a statement.

Kumar said the various RSS organisations working in the same field occasionally come together to share their experiments, experiences and observations. He also said such group meetings are taking place every year since 2007. This year RSS organisations have planned their meetings from May 28-31 in Delhi.

The meeting of the Sangh, its affiliates, the BJP, and the Central Government was chaired by RSS joint general secretary Krishna Gopal. The BJP was represented by Shah, party vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, general secretary Ram Madhav and secretary (organisation) Ram Lal. The Central Government was represented by the six ministers.

With inputs from PTI