Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday called on the Dalai Lama at the latter’s residence at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.
The RSS, considered the ideological mothership of the BJP, released pictures of Mr. Bhagwat greeting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and posing for pictures with ministers of the Tibetan government in exile.
Speaking to The Hindu, RSS’s ‘prachar pramukh’ and spokesperson Sunil Ambekar said it was a “courtesy call” by Mr. Bhagwat as he was in the State to address meetings of various groups.
The meeting, however, assumes significance in the backdrop of a continuing border face-off between China and India. The RSS has been hawkish for long on China. As far back as 2012, its Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal (ABKM), one of its highest decision making bodies, passed a resolution cautioning the then government that “It (China) continues to nibble away our territory through endless incursions along all the three sectors of the Bharat-Tibet border.” The year before, in 2011, the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, a meeting of all organisations affiliated to the RSS, including the BJP, passed a resolution, again on China and need for a comprehensive policy on national security with China in mind.
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