No back channel parleys with US-based NGO Compassion International: RSS

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Thursday termed as "false" reports of back channel negotiations regarding Compassion International and said no meeting between its representative and the US-based NGO ever happened.

It also insisted that it has no representative in any foreign countr,y including the US while condemning the attempt to malign the image of the Sangh.

"The news published regarding Compassion International's so called 'back channel negotiations with RSS representative in Washington DC' is unfair and totally false," Manmohan Vaidya, RSS All India Prachar Pramukh, said in a statement.

"RSS works only in Bharat (India) and has no representative in any foreign country including USA. We condemn such an attempt to malign the image of RSS," he said.

When contacted, Vaidya said that no meeting has ever taken place between the two organisations.

Indian authorities had put CI under prior permission category in May last year following allegations of funding religious conversions, barring it from receiving foreign funds without the government's approval.

In December, the Home Ministry had said it was unlikely to reconsider the decision, notwithstanding the appeals by American authorities.

India today rejected the US' contention of lack of transparency in banning US-based Christian NGO Compassion International, insisting the matter was of "law enforcement".

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay also trashed suggestions in the US media about RSS' involvement in getting the NGO banned, saying it was "completely extraneous" to the matter.