Will BJP's negative attitude towards Muslims ever change, asks Mayawati

Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati wondered if there will a change in the "negative attitude" of the BJP towards Muslims after the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat visited mosque and madrassa in Delhi

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Friday wondered if there will a change in the "negative attitude" of the BJP and its governments towards Muslims after the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat visited a mosque and a madrassa in Delhi.

Taking forward his outreach to the Muslim community, the RSS chief had on Thursday visited a mosque and a madrassa in Delhi and held discussions with chief of All India Imam Organisation Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, who had termed him as 'rashtra pita'.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sarsanghchalak' went to a mosque in central Delhi's Kasturba Gandhi Marg and followed it up with a visit to the Madarsa Tajweedul Quran in Azadpur in north Delhi.

Reacting on the visit, the BSP supremo in a tweet in Hindi said, "After RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat visited mosque/madrassa in Delhi yesterday and met the Ulemas and then got himself called the 'father of the nation' and 'rishi of the nation', will there be a change in the negative attitude and behaviour of BJP and its governments towards the Muslim society and their masjid-madrassas?"

In a related tweet she said, "The UP government is unable to bear the compulsion of offering prayers for a few minutes alone in an open space and is bent upon intervening in (functioning) of private madrassas also, while ignoring the government madrassas. But there is a need to also ponder on what meaning is being derived of the deep silence of the RSS chief on this issue."

On Thursday, an RSS functionary accompanying Bhagwat said it was the first time he had visited a madrassa.

During his visit to the madrassa, Bhagwat interacted with children and heard them reciting the Quran. Children raised the slogans of 'Vande Mataram' and 'Jai Hind', the functionary said.

All India Imam Organisation chief Ilyasi used the 'rashtra pita' descriptive for Bhagwat while talking to children at the madrassa. However, Bhagwat intervened to say there is only one father of the nation and said everyone is 'Bharat ki santan' (child of the nation), according to the RSS official.

The All India Imam Organisation is the representative voice of the community of Indian imams and claims to be the largest imam organisation in the world.