Two perfect opposites — leaders of the Sangh Parivar and Pakistan’s hardline Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Fazal-ur Rahman — met in New Delhi today and discussed ways to usher peace in the sub-continent.Rahman visited the Jhandewalan office of the RSS to confer with senior RSS leader H V Seshadri, currently pracharak pramukh, joint secretary Madan Dass Devi, in charge of the BJP, and spokesman Ram Madhav.The JUI chief, meeting leaders across the political spectrum, also had a closed-door session with Vishwa Hindu Parishad president Vishnu Hari Dalmia and senior vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore.Madhav later told The Indian Express that the RSS leaders made it clear to Rahman that creation of an atmosphere of mutual trust was a pre-requisite for peace between India and Pakistan. ‘‘We told him that Islamabad must put an end to ISI subversive activities in India.’’The Maulana, in his reply, was quoted as having said that Pakistan blamed every incident of violence on the RAW while India blamed all such incidents on the ISI.The Sangh leaders, however, expressed their disagreement over this and said that the death of Pakistani terrorists at the hands of the Indian security forces in different parts of the country proved that the ISI was involved in subversive activities. They asked the Jamiat leader to impress upon the Pakistani authorities to bring a halt to these activities. Neither Ayodhya, nor the old RSS demand that Muslims drop the concepts of kafir, kufr and jehad from their religious texts cropped up at the meeting.Rahman met Dalmia and Giriraj Kishore at the conference room of a five-star hotel in the Connaught Place area. Rajya Sabha member Lalit Suri, N K Sharma and Pakistani journalist Imtiaz Alam were present at the meeting, which lasted 50 minutes.Rahman readily posed for photographs, holding the hands of VHP leaders. ‘‘We are very happy. We have discussed only ways to find peace in the region.” He described the meeting as ‘‘very encouraging.’’Dalmia, on his part, said: ‘‘Ours is the same mission as that of our Pakistani friends of having a peaceful atmosphere. We welcomed our Pakistani brothers to uphold the tradition of our country to give all respect to a guest.’’ The Kanchi Kamakoti Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, it’s learnt, too had sent flowers to Rahman.
