'Totally wrong': BJP leader denies track-2 dialogue with Pakistan

Senior BJP leader and India Foundation President Ram Madhav has rejected reports claiming that he participated in a Track-2 dialogue with Pakistan during a regional security conference in Colombo.

Calling the reports a "totally wrong portrayal", Madhav said he only attended one session of the International Institute for Strategic Studies' (IISS) annual South Asia Dialogue and did not take part in any India-Pakistan backchannel talks.

In a post on social media platform X, Madhav said the event was a multilateral conference attended by scholars and participants from India, Sri Lanka, the United States, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He stressed that it was not a Track-2 dialogue and accused the reports of misrepresenting the event.

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"I did not attend the two-day dialogue. I was invited to speak at one session, which I did and left. Complete spin to a non-story," Madhav said while responding to a report published by the Hindustan Times.

What Ram Madhav said

Rejecting the report, Madhav said that the IISS South Asia Dialogue was an annual regional conference and not a bilateral engagement between India and Pakistan.

"It was not any Track-2 dialogue. It was IISS annual South Asia Dialogue which was attended by scholars from India, Sri Lanka, US, UK, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Even officials attended this annual dialogue in the past. No Track-2 is held with so many countries," he wrote.

He also clarified that he was present only for a single session and did not participate in the wider discussions over the two-day event.

What the report claimed

The Hindustan Times had reported that Indian and Pakistani delegations comprising politicians, retired military officials and diplomats held fresh Track-2 discussions on the sidelines of the IISS conference in Colombo.

According to the report, the security conference brought together delegates from several countries, including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and the United Kingdom. It claimed that the Indian and Pakistani participants held separate discussions over a day and a half at the Hilton Colombo.

The report said the Indian delegation included Ram Madhav, former Army chief General M.M. Naravane and former Indian High Commissioner to the UK Ruchi Ghanashyam.

It further claimed that the Pakistani side included Sajjad Haider Khan, Director General (South Asia and Saarc) in Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, Pakistan Peoples Party leader and former ambassador Sherry Rehman, and retired Major General Isfandiyar Ali Khan Pataudi.

Backchannel contacts after 2025 conflict

The report described the Colombo engagement as part of a series of unofficial India-Pakistan contacts following the military conflict in May 2025, which followed India's Operation Sindoor launched in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.

It also referred to an earlier report claiming that Indian and Pakistani strategic experts, parliamentarians and former diplomats had participated in at least four backchannel meetings since July 2025, with the first such meeting also organised by the IISS in London.

There are currently no formal bilateral talks between India and Pakistan, although the hotline between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries remains operational.

The report further said that the discussions in Colombo covered issues such as terrorism, cross-border river waters, crisis communication and measures to prevent military escalation, but did not produce any major outcomes.

The reported engagement came weeks after senior RSS functionary Dattatreya Hosabale argued that while India's security interests must remain paramount, channels of dialogue with Pakistan should not be completely closed. Former Army chief General Naravane had also supported continued people-to-people engagement, including through Track-2 diplomacy and sporting exchanges.