Communist Party of China delegation meets RSS, BJP leaders; Congress fumes
Communist Party of China delegation meets RSS, BJP leaders; Congress fumes
M.U.H
13/01/202620
Aday after a delegation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) met BJP leaders, the group on Tuesday called on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale at the Sangh’s Keshav Kunj headquarters in the national capital. Aimed at facilitating communications, the meetings triggered a political row with the opposition Congress criticising the saffron leadership for engaging with Chinese representatives despite Beijing’s reported claims over the Shaksgam Valley in Jammu and Kashmir.
RSS sources, meanwhile, described the meeting as a “pure courtesy call facilitated at the behest of the Chinese delegation,” which had “expressed desire to meet the Sangh leadership.” “It is a courtesy call. The request came from them, and we obliged. There is no agenda to the meeting,” according to a Sangh functionary.
The interaction was significant given the limited engagement between the BJP’s ideological fountainhead and Chinese representatives. The Sangh did not invite Chinese diplomats to Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat’s lecture series (which was attended by representatives of several other countries) last year. The decision was linked to Operation Sindoor, following which neither Pakistan nor China was invited.
The meeting with the BJP was the first party-to-party contact between the two ruling parties since the recent thaw in India-China relations following the 2020 Galwan clashes along the Line of Actual Control.
On Monday, the CPC delegation led by Sun Haiyan, Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC, visited the BJP headquarters. Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong was also present in the meeting, which on the BJP side was headed by party general secretary Arun Singh.
According to Dr Vijay Chauthaiwale, in-charge of the BJP’s Foreign Affairs Department, discussions focused on advancing “inter-party communications between BJP and CPC.”
“A delegation of the Communist Party of China under the leadership of H.E. Ms Sun Haiyan, (Vice Minister, IDCPC) visited the BJP head office today. During the discussion, a BJP delegation headed by party Gen Sec Shri Arun Singh Ji discussed at length the means to advance inter-party communications between BJP and CPC,” Chauthaiwale posted following the meeting. Chauthaiwale coordinates the BJP’s international outreach, including engagement with the Indian diaspora through Overseas Friends of BJP chapters and interactions with foreign diplomats.
Observers decode these interactions as “well-thought-of inter-party exchanges and perhaps also easing the existing political mistrust.”
“The presence of the Chinese Ambassador underscores official endorsement, aligning with recent economic pacts, including on rare earth supplies. It is in line with ongoing de-escalation via India’s “3 Ds”—disengagement, de-escalation, de-induction—and mutual respect principles, amid debate on ties with China. The follow-up meeting with RSS indicates deeper, tactical outreach. The CPC meeting the ruling party and its ideological parent, underlines a calibrated effort to broaden political channels of communication amid an otherwise strained India-China relationship. Coming at a time when India is engaged in a tariff war with the USA, the party-to-party interactions with a neighbour like China become even more significant,” they add.
The last such engagement between the two parties was when the BJP, led by its then president and current Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, visited China before the saffron party came to power in 2014. “The BJP President, Nitin Gadkari, visited China on a five-day goodwill mission from 20th January, 2011, at the invitation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China,” according to a report on Gadkari’s “goodwill visit” on the BJP website.
The Congress questioned the optics of these engagements, citing border tensions and “territorial encroachments.” Congress leader Supriya Shrinate launched a fierce attack, raising national security concerns and accusing China of asserting territorial claims even as political engagement continued in the capital.
“China has called the Shaksgam Valley of Jammu and Kashmir its own territory. For the past several days, China has been carrying out construction here in the name of CPEC. After Ladakh, how has China now entered this area as well? How is China daring to act so brazenly? Meanwhile, BJP leaders are holding meetings with China’s Communist Party!” Shrinate wrote on X.
The outreach also comes amid repeated attacks by the BJP on the Congress leadership over its alleged “proximity to the CPC,” referencing past meetings and “memoranda of understanding” between the two parties. The BJP had accused the Congress of “undermining national security” by signing the MoU with the CPC.
