In outreach effort, RSS invites Dalit, Muslim as guests

NAGPUR: A Muslim homeopath doctor was invited to be the chief guest at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS's) annual Shastra Puja function on Sunday by the organisation's children's wing. The outreach to minorities would get further bolstered on Dussehra, when the RSS mega function addressed by Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat will have a Dalit religious leader Nirmal Das Maharaj from Punjab's Jalandhar district as the chief guest.

Neither Das nor Munnawar Yusuf have any links to the RSS. Yusuf runs his medical practice at Shanti Nagar, a locality dominated by the Shias with whom the Sangh parivar has better relations among Muslim sects. Das heads the Siriguru Sadhu Ravidas Sampradai in Punjab, working among Dalits. Yusuf told TOI that some RSS activists, including its former deputy chief Laxmanrao Pardhi, were his friends.

"Some of them, including Pardhi, are regular visitors to my clinic. In fact, Pardhiji was my close friend," said Yusuf. "Recently, some RSS workers asked me if I could attend the function, and I accepted the invitation," he said. "It was mainly because I was to address children. I told them to follow principles of honesty and hard work, and encouraged them to make a career in our own country," Yusuf added.

Asked if he subscribed to the RSS ideology, the doctor said that wasn't a consideration since it was a kids' function. He said he faced no opposition from his community.