JOIN USRSS snubs clerics for seeking clarification
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) reportedly snubbed a delegation of Muslim clerics, who had sought clarifications from the former on their doubts and it instead asked them to reply to All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asauddin Owaisi's tirade against the Hindus.
The delegation of Muslim clerics had sought an appointment with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who was in Kanpur to take part in a meeting of Sangh office-bearers, but the latter reportedly refused and instead deputed senior Sangh leader Indireshji to meet them.
According to the sources, senior Sunni Muslim clerics, including Haji Mohammed Salis, general secretary of All India Sunni Ulema Council, Haji Iqbal Ansari and Haji Ishtiyaq Nizami, met Indireshji at the house of a BJP leader in Kanpur on Monday night and sought answers to the questions they posed before him in writing.
“We sought replies on issues like Sanha Parivaar’s reported plan to convert India into a Hindu nation, its views on Islam and conversion and some others,” said Salis after the meeting.
He claimed that the RSS leader avoided their questions and remained evasive. “We told the RSS leader that a sense of fear prevails among the Muslims owing to the negative remarks on the community after the BJP government assumed power at the Centre,” the cleric said while speaking to reporters in Kanpur.
The clerics also said at the meeting that there was no reason to doubt patriotism of the Muslims, who had made tremendous sacrifice for the freedom of the country and chose to stay back in India after partition. The clerics also quoted a reported remark by a Sangh leader that India would be a Hindu rashtra by 2021. “Such remarks instill fear in the Muslims,” the clerics told Indireshji.
They claimed that the RSS leader, instead of answering the questions, chose to counter them by asking them to reply on Owaisi’s remarks.
“We told the RSS leader that the Muslims do not subscribe to Owaisi’s views,” Haji Salis said.
Reports said that Indireshji questioned their (clerics) motive as they were accompanied by the local media when they arrived for the meeting.
The meeting that lasted for about a hour ended on a cordial note. The RSS leader garlanded the Muslim clerics saying that no religion taught its follower to indulge in violence and promote enmity.