- India must strongly respond to Pakistan's backing of cross-border terror attacks while keeping talks open
- He said India's security and self-respect must be protected through appropriate responses to terror incidents
- Diplomatic relations and sports events with Pakistan should continue to keep dialogue alive, he added
India must strongly respond to Pakistan's act of backing cross-border terror attacks, while also keeping the doors for talks open, RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told news agency PTI in an exclusive interview.
Hosabale recalled how during the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the former prime minister kept a path open for dialogue, and even travelled to Lahore by bus.
"Everything has been tried and more such efforts should continue. Atal ji tried to engage them in dialogue. He went to Lahore by bus and many things have happened, and our prime minister now also invited Pakistan at the time of taking oath. Then he attended the wedding ceremony of a Pakistani leader. So all these things we have tried," the general secretary of the BJP's ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), told PTI.
"If Pakistan is like a pinprick trying to create incidents like Pulwama etc we have to answer appropriately according to the situation because the security and self-respect of a country and nation have to be protected, and the government of the day should take note of it and take care of it," Hosabale said.
"But at the same time, we should not close the doors. We should always be ready to engage in dialogue. That is why diplomatic relations are maintained, trade and commerce continue, and visas are being given. So we should not stop these, because there should always be a window for dialogue," he said.
To a question whether sporting events should continue between the two neighbours, he said, "Of course, they can continue."
"This is the one hope I think, because I believe strongly that ultimately the civil society relations [will work]. Because we have a cultural relation and we have been one nation," he said.
Currently, India's policy is to hit terror anywhere it hides including Pakistan, as proven by Operation Sindoor. The Indian Air Force (IAF) took lead in the operation and showed the Pakistani military its place after terrorists groomed and sent by that country killed 26 tourists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam last year.
The terror and military targets were reduced to a pile of rubbles, burnt airframes, concrete hangars with large holes on their roofs, and mangled pieces of metals of what used to be so-called advanced air defence radar systems, all flattened by some of India's most advanced cruise missiles, drones and precision glide bombs.
Operation Sindoor, billed as the Indian military's most expansive multi-domain combat mission in half-a-century to punish Pakistan for its relentless support to cross-border terrorism, redefined India's overarching security and strategic goals.
