‘Bhagwat’s unity remarks contradict RSS views on Muslims’

Metro India News | Hyderabad 

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday alleged that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's remarks on Hindu-Muslim unity were meant to project a different image of the organisation, whose key thinkers, he claimed, had regarded Muslims as an internal threat. Addressing the One World: One Humanity Faith Leaders' Summit in New York, Bhagwat said that if any Hindu thinks there should be no Muslims in Bharat, he will not remain a Hindu.

"This is the oldest trick in the RSS playbook: Some words are for the world, and some are for its own members," Owaisi said in a post on X, referring to Bhagwat's remarks. Quoting from a biography of RSS founder K B Hedgewar, he said Hedgewar had parted ways with the Indian National Congress because "Gandhiji worked constantly with one eye on Hindu-Muslim unity".

"In fact, he (Hedgewar) did not even relish the newfangled slogan of 'Hindu-Muslim Unity'," the AIMIM leader quoted the biography as saying. Owaisi cited former RSS chief M S Golwalkar as saying that the Sangh was "inspired by one flag (saffron), one leader and one ideology".

"Golwalkar's 'Bunch of Thoughts' has a long chapter titled 'Internal Threats', in which Muslim and Christian citizens of India are described as threats number one and two, respectively," he said. Owaisi claimed that Muslims were being "subjected to Hindu law" under the RSS's ideology in the name of the Uniform Civil Code. He further alleged that Christians were being targeted through "draconian" anti-conversion laws.