RSS-Muslim leader meet: Reaching out with a message of harmony

Any dialogue between the powerful parent organisation of the ruling party and representatives of the minority community should be welcomed

The meeting of five members of the Muslim community— former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi, former lieutenant governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, former Aligarh Muslim University vice-chancellor Lt Gen (retd) Zameer Uddin Shah, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Shahid Siddiqui, businessman S Shervani — with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat must count as a landmark development in the backdrop of rising insecurity and sense of marginalisation among the Indian Muslims, the country’s largest minority community.

Ignoring the cynical view on the motivations that underpin the reasons on the part of both communities in seeking and agreeing to this dialogue — the Sangh Parivar’s need to soften its anti-minority image, more so in the run-up to the 2024 general elections, or the growing radicalisation across communities — the critical test of the exercise is whether such meetings will heal deeply fractured relations.

It is worth recalling that since at least 2018, the RSS has sought an outreach programme to emphasise its credentials as an inoffensive organisation dedicated to social uplift, with a much-publicised meeting with Pranab Mukherjee, the country’s president from 2012 to 2017, in that year (2018) being part of its campaign. Unfortunately, the sharp escalation in communal rhetoric in the past few years — whether it was the vigilante attacks on minorities or their growing intimidation — did little to assuage the sense of minority persecution. But any dialogue between the powerful parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and representatives of the minority community should be welcomed.

Reports suggest that the meeting enabled both sides to clear the air somewhat over some of the more damaging misconceptions each harbours of the other — the Muslim reference to Hindus as kafirs, for instance, and the Hindu labelling of Muslims as jihadis and “Pakistanis”; the controversy over cow slaughter; and the mistaken notion of the fast multiplying Muslim population owing to polygamy. Mr Bhagwat sought to reassure his visitors that the RSS would never abandon the Constitution or disenfranchise the Muslims.

All of this is heartening but the real value of the meeting will lie in whether Mr Bhagwat can effectively filter this message of amity and tolerance through the RSS’ vast network of over 3,000 pracharaks (full-time members), lakhs of volunteers in its 61,000-odd shakhas (branches), covering some 95 per cent of India’s districts, and, most critically, among the assortment of Hindu right 

organisation within the purview of the Sangh Parivar. Mr Bhagwat’s outreach and the prime minister’s recent comments on the need to help “Pasmanda Muslims”, or depressed classes in the community, should nudge the Sangh’s rank and file to act and aim for a more inclusive polity.