A day after an RSS body asked all madrasas in the country to hoist national flag, Darul Uloom Deoband on Monday asked the RSS if it “believed” in Constitution of India and in the national flag.
The Muslim Rashtriya Manch, (MRM), the Muslim body which functions under the patronage of senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar, on Sunday had > directed all the madrasas to hoist tricolour on the upcoming Republic Day.
Ashraf Usmani, the spokesperson of the seminary told The Hindu that even though the decision to hoist national flag is individual choice of madrasas, almost all of them not only hoist national flag but also celebrate Independence and Republic days.
Mr. Usmani also bluntly asked the RSS what was its contribution in the national freedom struggle.
“First of all, let me announce it to everybody who are ignorant of the immense contribution of madrasas in the freedom struggle of the country, that most of the madrasas not only hoist the national flag but also celebrate the Independence and Republic days regularly. Nobody has given the right to any body or any organisation like RSS to ask or direct anybody else, let alone madrasas, to hoist the national flag,” he said.
In a tone which is unusual for the seminary spokesperson, Mr. Usmani said that it would be “historically unfair” for any group associated with the RSS to question or pressurise madrasas in the country to “be patriotic”.
“It is a fact which everybody is aware, that those who are asking us to hoist the national flag, do not believe in it neither do they have any contribution in the struggle for the independence of the country. These people should first hoist the national flag in their headquarters in Nagpur before asking anybody, let alone us to hoist the tricolour,” he Usmani.
This is the first time that the influential Islamic seminary of the subcontinent has reacted so strongly to any organisation like RSS's questioning the nationalistic credentials of Islamic seminaries in India.
“We are the ones who sacrificed our lives for the freedom struggle of the country. It is an indisputable fact that the ideological forefathers of the group which is asking us for our nationalist credentials, were on the sides of Britishers. Now it would be hugely ironic and hypocritical of these people to ask us to do become nationalist,” added Mr. Usmani who heads the media department of the seminary.
The strong reaction by Mr. Deoband should be seen in the context of increasing pressure on Muslim groups to prove their “patriotism”.
Navaid Hamid the president of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat which is an umbrella body of about dozen representative Muslim groups, was shocked at the “ignorant” stand of the RSS body.
He termed the MRM as “stooges” of RSS who are not aware of “contribution of Islamic scholars in the national freedom struggle”.
“These people had burnt the national flag in 1949 and the same people are asking Madrasas to hoist tricolour. It's shameful and characteristically hypocritical of the MRM and RSS to speak like this. But we are not surprised. It is all a pressure tactics on Muslims to make them feel insecure and get communalise the country by falsifying history,” added Hamid.
