Meeting of RSS leadership and Muslim intellectuals - September 2022

 A meeting between RSS and Muslim intellectuals is held about one month before its announcement on 22nd September 2022.  

Mulsim intellectuals include former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi, ex-Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, former AMU vice-chancellor and Lt Gen (retd) Zameer Uddin Shah, RLD leader Shahid Siddiqui, and businessman Saeed Shervani. From RSS side, Mohan Bhagwat and Sah Sarkaryavah Krishna Gopal were present. The meeting was held at Udaseen Ashram, the Delhip RSS office. 

While Bhagwat appointed four senior functionaries (Krishna Gopal, Indresh Kumar, Ramlal and Manmohan Vaidya) to keep in touch with the Muslim community on a regular basis, Muslim intellectuals, journalists, writers and professionals would continue to participate in this discussion. 

Mr. Bhagawat told that people were unhappy about cow slaughter and words like kafir (used for non-Muslims). Muslim intellectuals questioned the frequent vilification of Muslims, particularly the propaganda about their population and practice of polygamy, reinforcing negative stereotypes about the community. There was a consensus in the meeting that for the progress of the country, communal harmony is a must. RSS leader told the Muslim intellectuals that they dont have any issue with Madrasas. 

The five intellectuals who met Bhagwat on behalf of the Muslim community had come together a year ago to launch an Alliance for Education and Economic Development of Underprivileged – an organization that has been working in education, particularly on bringing madrasas into mainstream modern education.

Muslim intellectuals had first sought a meeting with the RSS when the Nupur Sharma incident took place to remove toxic atmosphere. However, by the time the meeting was fixed, it was already a month since the Nupur Sharma incident, and it had died down quite a bit. So Muslim intellectuals discussed matters of communal disharmony between the two communities.

While RSS prachar pramukh Sunil Ambekar declined to comment on the meeting, a source in the Sangh said Bhagwat gives such appointments to whoever asks for them.