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Leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Union ministers of a few economic ministries met at Madhya Pradesh Bhavan on Tuesday to discuss how to improve coordination between Sangh Parivar organisations and the Narendra Modi government, and to iron out differences on key economic issues.
The meeting was attended by RSS joint general secretaries Krishna Gopal and Suresh Soni, BJP general secretaries Murlidhar Rao and Ram Madhav, power minister Piyush Goel, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) leaders Kashmiri Lal and Ashwani Mahajan; Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) leaders Brajesh Upadhyaya and Pawan Kumar; Bharatiya Kisan Sangh's Prabhakar Kelkar and a few others.
Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman and micro, small and medium enterprises minister Kalraj Mishra could not attend the meeting, as they were not in Delhi. Top leaders of Sahkar Bharati, Grahak Panchayat, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and Laghu Udyog Bharati also took part in the meeting.
The RSS has set up six committees to deal with issues such as economics, education, culture, science and technology and so on. According to sources, although these committees were formed ahead of the general elections and used to interact with the BJP at the time of manifesto preparation, they became inactive after the government formation. The RSS has now revived these committees. The other committees will meet in the coming days, a Sangh source said.
"In these meetings, leaders of the Sangh affiliates discuss with ministers the areas of conflict and try to minimise them," said a BJP leader.
The meeting assumes significance as the BMS and SJM have been highly critical of certain steps taken by the government. The BMS had crossed swords with the Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan over the labour reforms initiated by her administration. The SJM has recently come out against the appointment of Arvind Subramanian as chief economic adviser (CEA) to the government of India. SJM leader Mahajan had tweeted: "CEA appointment rule no.1 candidate should come from IMF/WB; rule 2 in case of confusion refer rule 1 (sic)." The SJM also took up the issue of intellectual property rights with the ministers.
In the forthcoming meeting of the education committee, leaders of Sangh Parivar organisations such Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Akhil Bharatiya Shaikshik Mahasangh, Siksha Bacho Andolan will meet human resources minister Smriti Irani along with senior RSS leaders.
