Tuesday, March 22 2005 15:30 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders besides right wing intellectuals are meeting in Bhopal from tomorrow (Mar 23, 2005) for a two-day brainstorming session on the challenges confronting the "Hindu movement" and to draw up a strategy to counter it.

While the RSS would be represented at the meet by its chief K S Sudarshan and general secretary Mohan Bhagwat, the BJP team includes Murli Manohar Joshi, former BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu, Bal Apte, Sanjay Joshi and Arun Shourie, RSS spokesman Ram Madhav said in Bhopal.

He said that the initiative of bringing "nationalist forces" together to dwell on the challenges and to evolve a response by Swami Dayanand Saraswati of the Coimbatore-based Arsha Vidya Gurukul and supported by the RSS, has been on for the past few years and the Bhopal meeting was part of that process.

Among the pro-Sangh Parivar intellectuals attending the closed-door meeting are Balbir Punj, Devendra Swarup, Sandhya Jain and Swapan Dasgupta.

A total of 55 people, including 40 intellectuals, are attending the two-day meeting.