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19. RSS wants Muslims for friends

The Sunday Observer
New Delhi, 18-24 August 1996
19. RSS wants Muslims for friends
DEEPALI NANDWANI

The fiery Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is on a friendship mission. And the target is none other than its �erstwhile enemy�, the Muslim community.

The RSS functionaries, sources say, are now meeting Muslim leaders to �get itself rid of the fascist tag� - just last week the top brass led by deputy general secretary K.S. Sudarshan conducted heart-to-heart talks with the Muslim leaders.

Interestingly, the meeting (marked with some acrimony from both the sides) was held at the south Mumbai office of the Urdu newspaper, Akhbare-Alam. Former Mumbai RSS secretary Ramesh Patange, Dr. U. Undre and Sudarshan represented the Sangh Parivar, while the Anjuman-e-Islam Trust chairman Ishaq Jamkhanawala, Akhbar-e-Alam editor Khalil Zhahid, Muslim League president G. M. Banatwala and Dr. Jamil Kamil of Maharashtra College were there from the Muslim side.

Contentious issues like the Babri Masjid, uniform civil code, recurring communal riots, deteriorating socio-economic conditions of Muslims, distribution of provocative pamphlets by the Sangh Parivar during the pre and post-Ayodhya riots period, as well as the prevailing gun culture in Kashmir were discussed threadbare.

�We have to understand that Muslims will continue living in India without converting. And since they are such a vast community, they obviously cannot be ignored,� Pantage said.

The RSS wanted to get rid of the hostility and mistrust that marks the Hindu-Muslim relation today. The media, he claimed, has contributed substantially to this by portraying the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad as fascist and fundamentalist organizations. �We are a very disciplined organization with a commitment to social causes. The Muslims too are victims of the mischievous propaganda of the press,� he said.

Zhahid concurred, and added that the differences between the two have reached hysterical proportions. �It is time we sat down and debated issues amicably, instead of accusing each other of being communalists,� he said.

Confirming that a meeting attended by more than 100 Muslim leaders and intellectuals had taken place, Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Pramod Mahajan said the idea was to find out the reasons for the lack of trust between the two communities, remove their fear psychosis and strive to establish �brotherly relations� with �the bona fide citizens of the country.� He added that Mumbai was chosen as the venue for obvious reasons.

However, the Muslim leaders are yet to get over their bitterness. �The RSS and the BJP think Muslims have been appeased by the Congress, but the reality is just the opposite. Only 1.5 per cent Muslims are in government services. The standards of living in Muslim-dominated localities are declining every day,� Zhahaid said, �If Muslims want to progress they will have to join hands with the Hindus.�

�Stalemate over issues like the uniform civil code can only be solved by mutual discussions,� said Samajwadi Party office-bearer I.S. Qasim. �Muslims are a little rigid about religion. They feel the BJP is trying to impose Hindu laws on them. What we can do is debate the issue and reach an agreement.�

The Muslim leaders, however, admit that there will be a lot of resistance to the idea. �Enough blood has already been shed,� said Banatwala, �We will not let the saboteurs succeed.�

While leaders of the two communities are optimistic that such non-political contacts will help bridge the chasm between them, others are not at all convinced. Janata Dal worker Nadeera Sheikh scoffed, �Do you think such talks can solve the monumental differences between the two? Until the socio-economic conditions of Muslims improve and they are brought on par with other communities, the differences will remain.�

Mumbai trader Salim Khan agreed, �We are a mere vote bank for both Hindu and Muslim leaders to exploit. It is in their interest that the two communities remain polarized.�

Syed Mir Saif, jewellery trader of Dariba Kalan in Chandni Chowk, pointed out, �Our politics is different from the Hindus. Where do the twain meet for us to hold talks?� Government school teacher Mohammad Ali Khan was even more forthright. �How can a leopard change its spots?� he asked.

A senior professor of Jamia Millia University, however, welcomed the talks.  Requesting anonymity, he said, �If the RSS is serious about the talks, it means they have realized they cannot come to power on a jingoistic agenda.�

Despite general scepticism in the community, RSS and Muslim leaders are determined to hold more dialogues. RSS sources confirm that Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are next on the list. Efforts are on to arrange a closed-door meeting with the Muslim community in the Capital.

The peaceful conduct of jalabhishek by the Shiv Sena at Varanasi without any rabble-rousing by the RSS or the VHP is also seen as an indicator of the changed social and political agenda of the Parivar.*
 

Footnotes:

* The Sangh Parivar leadership refuses to learn the one worthwhile lesson from a long stretch of history, namely, that so long as Hindus remain Hindus, howsoever soft, and Muslims remain Muslims, howsoever liberal, Hindu-Muslim relations are bound to remain what they have been since the advent of Islam in this country. The deep gulf which divides the two communities - one indigenous and the other self-alienated - cannot be bridged by any amount of wishful thinking.
 

     

Time for Stock Taking - Whither Sangh Parivar?

Sita Ram Goel
Chapters
Introduction 1. A Call for an Intellectual (Bauddhika) Kshatriya 2. Ideological Defence of Hindu Society 1. G.V. Ashtekar 2. Professor G.C. Asnani 3. Deep Chandra Awasthi 4. P. N. Awasthi 5. S. K. Balasubramanian 6. Abhas Chatterjee 7. G.C. Chaudhary 8. S. K. Dalvi 9. Ashoke Dasgupta 10. Jitendra D. Desai 11. Nachiketa Dogra 12.  Adwayanand R. Galatge 13. K. B. Ganapathy 14. Padmashri Shalil Ghosh 15. Bhagwati Prasad Goenka 16. Shiv Goud 17. S. C. Gupta 18. B.L. Jaju 19. H.C. Joshi 20.  Dr. S.D. Kulkarni 21.  S.D. Laghate 22.  Professor K. Lakshminarayana 23. Professor K.S. Lal 24. Professor R. R. Mangasuli 25. T. G. Mohandas 26.  Professor S. G. Mujumdar 27.  P. R. K. Naidu 28.  S. Omkar 29. Virendra V. Parekh 30. Hem Raj Prabhakar 31. Baljit Rai 32. Dr. H. Ramarao 33. B.K. Rao 34. (Mrs) Veda Sampath 35. Smt.  M. Sandhya 36. K. Satya Deva Prasad 37. Jagannath Sharma 38. Ajit Singh 39.  Ram Autar Singh 40. Vikram Singh 41. Dr. Vinay Kumar Sinha 42. Shrikant G. Talageri 43. Mrs. Leela Tampi 44. B. K. Verma 45. R. C. Waswani 46. P. S. Yog 47. Brief Responses 1. Sarva Dharma Samabhãva or Sarva Dharma Sambhrama?  (Unity or Confusion of Religions?) 2. Meaning of Conversions 1. Roll Over, Rushdie 2. Standing Up to Scrutinize Islam 3. Turning away from Mecca 4. Islam is religious fascism 5. Courageous author puts his life on the line 6. Far more dangerous than Nazism 1. Legacy of hate 2. BJP shifts stand to woo Muslims 3. BJP promoting a �minority-friendly� image for elections 4. BJP looks for Muslim plank to move towards Delhi 5. BJP girds up to appease Muslim 6. Khurana�s go-slow on migrants issue irks hawks 7. Pampering the minority ego 8. BJP to bring out Koran in Sanskrit 9. Vajpayee for diluting stand on �Hindutva� 10. More Space for �namaaz� urged 11. Chhabildas sticks to his guns on minority votes 12. Advani allays minorities fears 13. Secret of BJP�s success 14. Advani woos Indian expatriates in London, assails Govt�s Kashmir policy 15. BJP bid to woo Muslims 16. �How can any Muslim in this country say that he does not respect Ram?� 17. Malhotra�s statement on Ayodhya annoys Chavan 18. BJP bid to win over Muslims 19. RSS wants Muslims for friends 20. Babri or �Barabari�? 21. Bihar BJP�s first-ever Muslim leader emerges 22. J.K. Hindu exiles eulogise Thackeray 23. Secularism is the very colour of our blood: Vajpayee 24. A good augury 25. Muslims in Behrampada voted in a pragmatic way 26. Joshi sparks off row over Religion Bill 27. VHP drops plan to �liberate� Kashi, Mathura 28. Govt seeks revision of order on Naib Imam 29. BJYM�S meet on June 7 30. Vande Mataram �dispute� at BJP Muslim meeting The Tabligh Movement or Millions of Bearded Militants on the March 1. Population Explosion in West Bengal: A Survey