Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 22: In an outreach that earned him the nickname “Rashtra Pita,” the title venerably reserved for Mahatma Gandhi, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday visited a mosque in Delhi and held a meeting with its chief cleric as part of the Sangh’s efforts to establish communal harmony in the country.
Mohan Bhagwat met with Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, the chief cleric of the All India Imam Organization, at a mosque in the heart of Delhi, not far from top government and political offices. After the visit, Ilyasi termed Bhagwat “Rashtra Pita” and was quoted as saying, “We all believe that the nation comes first. Our DNA is same, only our method of worshipping God is different.” It was described as a “closed door meeting” that lasted more than an hour.
According to an RSS functionary, the meeting was a part of the Sangh’s efforts to connect with people from a cross-section of society. Bhagwat was accompanied by senior Sangh functionaries joint general secretary Krishna Gopal, Ram Lal, former organisational secretary of the BJP, and Indresh Kumar, patron of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch.
Sharing details of the meeting, the brother of Ilyasi Suhaib Ilyasi said “it was great that Bhagwatji came on our invitation on the death anniversary of our father. It also sends out a good message to the country.” Later the RSS chief who has been meeting Muslim leaders in an unprecedented outreach, also visited the Madrasa Tajweedul Quran in north Delhi at the invitation of the Imam chief and interacted with students.
The RSS chief has been holding discussions with Muslim intellectuals for strengthening communal harmony. Recently, five eminent Muslims, including the former lieutenant governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung and former election commissioner SY Quraishi, met with Bhagwat with the proposal to work on a strategy to work for amity and communal harmony.
The RSS chief had met with Muslim intellectuals to try and “strengthen communal harmony,” which brought sharp reaction from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, whose political survival depends on anti-Hindu sentiments among the Muslims. “The Muslim leaders who met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, the ideological mentor of the BJP, are “elite” and “have nothing to do with ground reality,” Owaisi said.
The RSS, however, maintained that Bhagwat’s gesture in meeting the Muslim intellectuals was significant in the aftermath of the Hijab row in Karnataka and suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma’s comments on the Prophet, which triggered violence and protests. The group sought a meeting weeks after Bhagwat’s statement questioning the need to “look for a Shivling under every mosque”, against the backdrop of a petition requesting Hindu prayers at a shrine within Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque complex.
“RSS Sarsanghachalak (chief) meets people from all walks of life. It is part of the continuous general ‘Samvad’ (discussion) process,” RSS spokesperson Sunil Ambekar had said.
On August 22, Bhagwat had met five Muslim intellectuals and shared his concerns about the “current atmosphere of disharmony” in the country. Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, Delhi’s former Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, former Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University Lieutenant General Zameer Uddin Shah, former MP Shahid Siddiqui and businessman Saeed Shervani were among those present at the meeting that lasted for about 75 minutes. Both sides agreed to dial down divisive rhetoric and discussed what each had objections to.
According to Quraishi, Bhagwat said at the meeting that he too was worried about the situation in the country. “I’m not happy with the atmosphere of disharmony. It is completely wrong. The country can move ahead only with cooperation and cohesion,” he quoted the RSS chief as saying. Bhagwat discussed points of concern to him, like cow slaughter, which upsets the Hindus, he said.
“So we said it is banned practically across the country. The Muslims are law abiding and if anyone violates it, it is a huge mistake and there should be punishment,” Quraishi said. The other was the use of the word “kafir” or non-believers, which “gave the Hindus a bad feeling”, Bhagwat reportedly said.
“We told him that originally in Arabic, the word means non-believers. Some people believe in Islam, they are called ‘Momin’. The non-believers are ‘kafir’. It was a neutral word and now it has become abusive. We don’t have a problem stopping it,” Quraishi said.
The Muslim leaders made the point “that some right-wing people call Muslims jihadi and Pakistani.” “They are suspicious of Muslims’ loyalty and want them to prove their patriotism at every turn. The Muslims are also Indians,” Bhagwat, he said, agreed. “We share the same DNA. The majority of Muslims here are converts,” he quoted the RSS chief as saying in response. “He gave us much assurance. His statement on Shivling was also very strong and we welcome it,” Quraishi said.
The meeting, however, did not go down well with Owaisi. “These people went and met him (Bhagwat). The whole world knows the RSS’ ideology, and you go and meet him. This elite section of the Muslim community, whatever they do, is the truth. But when we fight politically for our fundamental rights, we are shown in a bad light,” Owaisi said in a media interaction.
“This elite layer, which thinks it is very knowledgeable and has no touch with the ground reality, they are living comfortably and they go and meet the RSS chief. It is their democratic right, I do not question that, but they too don’t have a right to question us,” he added.
Sangh sources said meetings with representatives of other faiths has also been proposed and the two sides have agreed to find areas of disagreement that need attention. The All India Imam Organisation is the representative voice of the community of Indian Imams. “The organisation was formed to undertake at all levels the socio-economic issues which directly influence earnings of imams, their status in society and the expectations that the community and state have from them,” says the organisation on its website.
At a book launch earlier this week, Bhagwat stressed the need for communal integrity and the need for the country to retain its historical identity and rebuild the narrative around it instead of emulating other countries in order to avoid being ridiculed on a global stage.
Bhagwat had said Indians accepted the narrative that sought to ridicule their history, ancestors and cultural practices, which was a colossal mistake. “There is a need to read and feel proud of our history and create a narrative. We cannot be China, Russia or USA, that will be mockery, and not development,” he said.
The RSS had been pushing for re-visiting India’s history and re-examining scriptures and historical accounts. The RSS has also been pushing for drafting policies that lay stress on indigenisation. It blames foreign rulers who invaded India for distorting the history of the Indian civilisation and running down the accomplishments of Indians.
