[Reader-list] China woos saffron parties

[Pawan Durani]

http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/jan/08china-woos-saffron-parties-arunachal-on-agenda.htm

Five bigwigs of Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Shiv
Sena are on a six-day visit to China on an invitation from the Communist
Party of China.

The BJP-RSS-SS delegation is led by Bal Apte, BJP member of Rajya Sabha. Ram
Madhav, member of RSS executive council, Chandan Mitra, editor of *Pioneer*,
Balbir Punj, senior journalist and BJP leader, and Suresh Prabhu, Shiv Sena
leader from Maharashtra, are part of the delegation.

On December 5, the delegation met members of the Politburo and also the head
of international department of the communist party, who is often considered
more senior than China's foreign minister.

Wang Jiarui, minister of International department of CPC and Vice Minister
Liu Hongoai met the delegation in Great Hall near Tiananmen Square in
Beijing [Images <http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=beijing>].
Later, a lunch was hosted for the visiting delegation by the CPC.

In their interactions, both sides exchange views on Tibet
[Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=tibet>
], Arunchal Pradesh and the economic melt down.

Talking to *rediff.com* from Shanghai, Ram Madhav said, "We represented
national consensus over the issue of Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh."

He said the interactions of CPC and the Hindu parties were quite broad-based
and intense where Chinese counterparts also stuck steadfastly to their
views. Apte stressed that party-to-party meetings are in fact
people-to-people meetings because political parties directly deal with
people.

Madhav said, "We emphasised that Tibet has a distinct culture and that
identity must be preserved. We also gave them an idea about how much Dalai
Lama [Images <http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=dalai
lama>]is revered in India. Of course, we have different perspectives
but dialogue
is important."

Madhav claimed this was the first time that such a dialogue on crucial
issues at political parties' level had took place between India and China.

The delegation was also taken to political school of CPC. Every Chinese
leader has to attend this school. Indian leaders also met members of China's
think-tank.