Opposition Leaders Condemns RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s Visit to Madrasa

New Delhi: Congress leader and Madhya Pradesh ex-chief minister Digvijaya Singh contrasted RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s visit to a madrasa in Delhi on Thursday with that of the ivory teeth of elephants which are just to look good. Except if Mohan Bhagwat also meets the family members of Akhlaq (who was lynched in Dadri in 2015) and gives articulation against the people who felicitated Bilkis Bano rapists, Mohan Bhagwat’s meeting with the chief imam will stay sham, the Congress leader said. “Wherever innocent Muslims have been persecuted by your workers, apologize to them and get them justice. Then only, we will believe that the RSS is thinking differently,” he said.

“There is a saying that elephant’s ivory teeth are only for show, and they have different teeth for eating,” Digvijaya Singh said.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday met Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, chief Imam of All India Imam Organization. Then, he went to a madrasa for the very first time and interfaced with the students. During his interaction, he let them know that all religions should be respected. Mohan Bhagwat was addressed as ‘rashtra pita’ during the interaction to which he objected and said everybody is the child of the nation while there is only one father of the nation.

The Congress said it was the effect of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and welcomed Mohan Bhagwat to join the yatra with Rahul Gandhi with the tricolor in his grasp.

Samajwadi Party MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq denounced the use of the term ‘rashtrapita’ for Mohan Bhagwat and said the imam chief might have utilized those words out of dread. Ilyasi might have regard for Bhagwat, yet the words shouldn’t have been used, he said.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said she contemplates whether the negative mentality of the BJP towards Muslims will change after Mohan Bhagwat’s visit to the mosque and madrasa. “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 behavior of BJP and its governments towards the Muslim society and their masjid-madrasas?” she twitted.