RSS won't accept Muslims: Mayawati

The RSS would never accept the Muslims even if they agreed to build not just the Ram temple in Ayodhya but many other temples, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati said on Thursday.

She also slammed the Narendra Modi government's move on the 'triple talaq' ordinance, calling it "politically motivated".

Reacting to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat's observation on Wednesday that if the Muslims themselves build the Ram temple in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh it would help mitigate the animosity between the Hindus and Muslims, she said she did not agree with this.

"We don't agree with this logic. Even if the Muslims make many more temples the narrow-minded Hindus will never mend fences with the Muslims because their basic mentality is anti-Muslim, anti-Dalit and anti-minorities," Mayawati said in a statement.

Warning people to guard against the RSS and BJP leaders' efforts to divide society on religious lines, the Dalit leader said that "they say one thing and do another".

She alleged that the RSS' "communal and casteist" face had come to the fore after the BJP came to power at the Centre and in many states.

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that Bhagwat's three-day outreach programme was a ploy to distract public attention from the burning issues of poverty, hunger, price rise, unemployment and corruption.

"The RSS has put everything at stake for the BJP. Now that the discontent against the Narendra Modi government is at its peak, the RSS is also jittery," the Dalit leader said.

She said that had the Sangh's ideology been so humane, pro-people and respecting the Constitution of India, the organisation would not have faced a ban thrice after Independence.

On the 'triple talaq' ordinance cleared by the Union Cabinet, Mayawati said: "The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is doing politics on such sensitive issues to deflect public attention from its failures. Had it not been a politically motivated move, the government would have agreed to send the triple talaq bill pending in the Rajya Sabha to a Select Committee for comprehensive discussion."

--IANS

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