After the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supported a warm reception to the Pakistani cricket team, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) too said it is not opposed to the tour though it believed that such sporting ties would not improve Indo-Pak relations.
"If there can be diplomatic ties between the two countries, let there be cricket as well. Even in the cricket field, it will provide an opportunity to both sides to prove their strength," VHP senior vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday.
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Kishore, however, asserted that such sporting ties cannot reduce "bitterness" between the two countries.
"There cannot be sweet relations between India and Pakistan. The problem lies at the very root of the creation of Pakistan," he said.
In sharp contrast to Shiv Sena's reaction to the Pakistan team's forthcoming tour of India, the RSS had last week expressed hope that the visitors would get the same amount of love here which the Indians received during their tour of Pakistan last year.
"The feeling of love and spontaneous brotherhood the Indian cricket team experienced during their visit cannot ever be termed as artificial, neither can we say that it was possibly part of a drama," an editorial in the latest issue of the RSS Hindi organ 'Panchajanya' said.
"When they come to play cricket in India, we hope that overcoming narrow politics, they would experience the same amount of love and affection here which we had received in their country," it said.
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