By TCN News,
New Delhi: Dr. Mohammad Manzoor Alam, General Secretary of All India Milli Council has written an open letter to the Sarsanchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mohan Bhagwat to share with him “misgivings about the Sangh’s anti-minorities, particularly anti-Muslim, campaigns.”
Dr Alam has raised the issues of purported ‘love-jihad’, communal tensions, anti-Muslim riots, clamour on meat-eating and allied issues, hate speech of several Hindutva leaders and the issue of forcible conversion of poor, illiterate Muslims and Christians – so called ghar-wapsi.
Dr. Mohammad Manzoor Alam
Detailing the instances of the above mentioned issues, he wrote, “The above instances are not only acts of rowdyism and fascist thuggery, but amount to an attack on the august Constitution of India.”
Quoting Hindusim’s dictum: Vasudhev kutumbkam (the whole world is a family), Dr Alam ends his letter on a sarcastic note, saying, “If the Sangh cannot be faithful to the Constitution or good sense, it can at least try to remain faithful to Hindu ideals. We hope that you will give it a thought and withdraw the sustained anti-minorities campaign in near future.”
Full Text of the Letter:
December 25, 2014
Shri Mohan Bhagwat
Sarsanchalak, RSS
New Delhi
Dear Sir,
Happy Christmas and season’s greetings.
We hope this finds you in good health and cheer. This is to share with you our misgivings about the Sangh’s anti-minorities, particularly anti-Muslim, campaign over nearly last two years.
To name a few particularly injurious Sangh activities over the last couple of years, we are particularly chagrined over the blatantly anti-Muslim campaign against a falsely concocted “love jihad” movement. Thanks to an overzealous campaign by Sangh and its affiliates we saw one of the most vicious anti-Muslim riots in Muzaffarnagar conducted on the lines of 2002 riots in Gujarat. All the techniques perfected in Gujarat were used in Muzaffarnagar, with similar results.
The Sangh hand was visible everywhere. Communal riots never fail to moblise the vote in favour of the BJP and this time, too, it benefited the BJP in elections greatly. We remember Shri Ashok Singhal’s boast in 2002 that Gujarat lab experiment had succeeded. Such experiments could be repeated with equal success anywhere in India.
Then we heard a lot of clamour on meat-eating and allied issues, which was based on ignorance and wrong assumptions. Yet, it had a lethal effect on Hindu-Muslim relations. People who push such divisive agenda do not know, or deliberately ignore, the fact that our Aryan ancestors were heavy meat eaters enjoying the flesh of all kinds of animals, birds and fish. The Hindu preference for vegetarianism is a post-Buddhist and post-Jaini phenomenon. Even then all Hindus are not vegetarian. Singling out Muslims and Christians for condemnation on this count is not fair.
Then there was Sakshi Maharaj’s wild, unsubstantiated charge against Muslims that bordered on foolishness. It was withdrawn after an outcry of protest, mostly from Hindus and rarely from Muslims. Then the Sadhvi Union minister of state raised another mischief by using foul language against everyone who was not with the BJP. These two — the sadhu maharaj and the sadhvi — between them demonstrated the worst type of bad public manners, bad taste (if not bad breeding) and mischievous conduct. They were getting sustenance from the Sangh antipathy for the minorities and democratic opposition even though it is preponderantly Hindu.
The above instances are not only acts of rowdyism and fascist thuggery, but amount to an attack on the august Constitution of India.
The latest round of Sangh lawlessness and rowdyism is the forcible conversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism under threat of violence and social boycott. Again, after a lot of protest and condemnation (mostly by Hindus) this programme, too, seems to be relenting. After a round of this display of public nuisance, the Sangh’s political front, the BJP, has started a counterfeit, distorted argument against the constitutional right to conversion and propagation of one’s faith. A genuine act of conversion, that the Constitution supports, is not the same thing as the lawless ghar wapsi programme of the Sangh. One cannot be compared with the other because they are two different things, unrelated to each other.
The Sangh has lighted a huge fire of hatred against the minorities as is evident from the above. However, I should remind you that hatred breeds hatred and if there is nothing left to eat the fire eats itself. I hope that you will stop this dangerous disservice to the nation soon enough.
I have often been told by Sangh-affiliated friends that the Sangh believes in Hindusim’s dictum: Vasudhev kutumbkam (the whole world is a family). The sustained attack the Sangh has continued against the minorities makes this claim hollow.
If the Sangh cannot be faithful to the Constitution or good sense, it can at least try to remain faithful to Hindu ideals. We hope that you will give it a thought and withdraw the sustained anti-minorities campaign in near future.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
(Dr. M. Manzoor Alam)
General Secretary