NEW YORK, USA: In what has become a glaring display of duality, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s address on diversity and tolerance at New York’s Madison Square Garden has been met with widespread condemnation, both from Indian opposition parties and from American religious leaders who now say they were “deceived and entrapped” into participating in the event.
The controversy exposes a fundamental hypocrisy at the heart of the RSS: preaching harmony abroad while orchestrating an agenda of division at home.
American religious leaders: “We were misled”
Two prominent U.S. religious leaders have publicly repudiated their participation in the interfaith event featuring Bhagwat, saying organisers concealed his involvement and left them vulnerable to being portrayed as endorsing the RSS and its Hindu nationalist ideology.
Rev. Adriene Thorne, senior minister of New York’s Riverside Church, said organisers had “withheld critical information” about Bhagwat and the RSS and that she would not have participated had she known the nature of the event.
“The RSS has been widely documented for its role in violence and discrimination against religious minorities in India- Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, and others,” Thorne said in a video statement.
She rejected any suggestion that appearing at the gathering amounted to support for the RSS or Hindu nationalism. “I reject Hindu supremacy just as I reject Christian supremacy, Muslim supremacy, Jewish supremacy, racism, and every ideology that elevates one community over another,” she declared.
“My appearance should not have happened. I was misled,” she added.
Imam Shamsi Ali, a New York-based Muslim and interfaith leader, separately said he felt “deceived and entrapped” after attending part of the gathering, saying neither his discussions with organizers nor his invitation disclosed that Bhagwat would be the central guest.
“Had I known the event was organized to honor Mohan Bhagwat, I would have declined immediately,” Ali said.
He described his participation as a “serious error in judgment” and dismissed Bhagwat’s remarks about peace as “lip service,” arguing they contradicted the experience of minorities in India, where Muslims and others face discrimination and violence resulting from the ideology promoted by the RSS.
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Indian opposition slams “doublespeak”
Back home, the political backlash was swift and scathing.
Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed accused the RSS chief of “lying” and alleged that the RSS’s DNA has “hatred and communalism.”
Congress leader Udit Raj said Bhagwat made the statement to placate those protesting against the RSS in New York. “They are two-faced people, they change their colours like a chameleon. Since there were protests against them in New York, they had to try to counter it with such a jumla (rhetoric),” he said.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi accused Bhagwat of indulging in “doublespeak” and termed the speech “the oldest trick in the RSS playbook.”
“Some words are for the world, and some are for its own members. What do they say about Muslims and other minorities?” Owaisi questioned.
He added: “My request to Bhagwat is that he should just recite choice extracts from the poisonous works of Savarkar, Hedgewar, Golwalkar, etc. Let people decide what they make of RSS.”
Shiv Sena UBT MP Sanjay Raut said the RSS chief needed to make the same statement in India. “This statement and ideology, Bhagwat ji should speak about it in India. Their people who are sitting in power in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, those in Maharashtra, imported from other parties, he should tell them this. You will say something in New York and in Bharat, when there is a protester against you, you will say something different. This is not called dharma but dhong (drama),” he said.
Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal took a swipe at Bhagwat, saying he was left wondering whether it was Congress leader Rahul Gandhi or the Sangh chief speaking. “You accept diversity abroad; you do not tolerate diversity at home,” said Sibal.
Read Also: RSS Leader Gets Angry US Response
The fundamental contradiction
The RSS, founded in 1925, advocates Hindutva, a right-wing political ideology that proclaims Indian national identity in terms of supremacy of Hindu culture and civilisation.
The contradiction could not be starker: while Bhagwat spoke of “One World One Humanity” at Madison Square Garden, the RSS continues to promote an ideology that marginalises Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, and other minorities in India.
The American religious leaders’ repudiation of the event has laid bare this hypocrisy for the world to see. As Imam Ali noted, Bhagwat’s peace remarks were mere “lip service”, words crafted for an international audience while the RSS’s domestic agenda remains unchanged.
Bhagwat’s New York speech was not a moment of enlightenment, it was damage control. When his event faced protests from activists critical of the RSS, he attempted to sanitize his organization’s image with platitudes about diversity and peace.
But the American religious leaders who felt “deceived and entrapped” saw through the charade. The Indian opposition called it out as the “oldest trick in the RSS playbook.” And the fundamental question remains: if the RSS truly believes in “One World One Humanity,” why does it continue to advocate for a Hindu Rashtra that excludes millions of Indian citizens?
The world is watching, and it is not fooled.
