PM meets RSS leaders

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 1. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, today hosted a dinner for the top leadership of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, including its chief, Mr. K. Sudarshan, Mr. Mohan Bhagwat (general secretary), Mr. H. V. Seshadri (joint general secretary), and Mr. Madandas Devi (joint general secretary). Mr. Vajpayee's guests, besides the RSS leaders, included the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, the BJP president, Mr. Bangaru Laxman, and the former president, Mr. Kushabhau Thakre.

Informed sources, however, were keen on playing down the significance of the interaction. The dinner meeting was described as part of the on-going public contact programme of the new RSS team; the team was scheduled to meet the President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan, but the appointment was cancelled as the President remains unwell and is not meeting visitors.

Though, of late, the RSS appears to have dropped its public opposition to the Vajpayee Government's economic policies, the congregation at the Prime Minister's residence is being described as an exercise in extending to the RSS leadership courtesy and respect, without deferring to the saffron establishment in policy matters. The RSS has been supportive of Mr. Vajpayee's Ramzan ceasefire initiative in Jammu and Kashmir.

In particular, the Vajpayee establishment is mindful of the fact that a section of the RSS remains unconvinced about the Government's enthusiastic endorsement of the ``second generation of economic reforms''. The idea is to keep the channels of communication open.

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