Congress hits back at BJP over RSS meeting with Yasin Malik

This came in response to BJP saying Manmohan Singh 'thanked' the Kashmiri separatist leader for meeting Hafiz Saeed

New Delhi: The BJP on Friday alleged that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “thanked” Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik for meeting Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, and shared Malik’s affidavit submitted to the Delhi High Court to support its claim.

In response, Congress chief spokesperson Pawan Khera said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), as well as its think tank Vivekananda Foundation, met Malik, and that he was made to speak to businessman Dhirubhai Ambani via an intermediary when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister.

Sharing the affidavit, Malviya alleged that the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader met LeT founder and 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan in 2006. “The meeting was not his independent initiative but was arranged at the request of senior Indian intelligence officials as part of a back-channel peace process. After the meeting, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh personally thanked and expressed gratitude to him,” he said.

Calling Malik a “hardened terrorist” who gunned down three Air Force personnel in uniform, Malviya said this “amounts to waging war against the state”. “If these new claims are true, they raise grave questions about the UPA’s handling of national security and back-channel diplomacy,” he said, stirring a controversy.

In response, Khera said the BJP was “selectively leaking” parts from the affidavit. 

“Why was the RSS meeting Yasin Malik in 2011? The BJP was not even in power then … Why was BJP-RSS affiliated think tank — Vivekananda Foundation’s leadership — interacting with Yasin Malik … Is it true that during the Vajpayee era, Malik was made to speak over the phone to Dhirubhai Ambani, through an intermediary,” Khera said.

He said Singh was just “extending courtesy to someone claiming to pursue peace”. He added that in May 2007, Malik was arrested while preparing to launch his Safar-e-Azadi and began an indefinite hunger strike demanding the right to proceed. “It was Atal Bihari Vajpayee who intervened with the UPA govt and made sure that the march was allowed to take place,” Khera said. 

He added that from Vajpayee to Manmohan Singh, the state policy was dialogue and engagement, and both the governments met all sorts of stakeholders. “If Dr. Singh’s courtesy is to be questioned, perhaps the BJP should explain Vajpayee Ji’s smiling photo-op with the Hurriyat leadership, or Advani Ji’s solemn pilgrimage to Jinnah’s grave in Karachi. Otherwise, we would all like to enjoy their silence for once,” Khera said.