RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: In a fresh outreach attempt, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday met with 50 Muslim clerics. At the closed-door meeting held at Haryana Bhawan, Bhagwat said that all faiths are the same.
The meeting comes two years after the RSS held a similar outreach in 2023. Clerics of the All India Imam Association took part in the meeting.
Chief Imams of Gujarat and Haryana, the Grand Muftis of Uttarakhand, Jaipur, and Uttar Pradesh (Tile Wali Masjid, Lucknow), as well as representatives from Deoband Madrasa were present at the meeting. RSS leaders including Sarkaryawah Dattatreya Hosbale, co-saryawah Krishna Gopal, senior campaigner Indresh Kumar, BJP organisation minister BL Santosh and other office-bearers also attended the meeting.
The meeting was hosted by Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi of the All India Imam Association. He said that the objective of the meeting was to promote harmony.
“Our primary objective is to keep the spirit of dialogue alive. We may follow different faiths, but we are all Indians. There should be no hostility among communities, and such platforms of communication must continue,” he told reporters.
Ilyasi also said that the meeting was not to discuss one single issue, and that it was held to promote unity among the different faiths. The meeting comes even as communal issues continue to grow.