A front of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, aimed at reaching out to Muslims, is holding talks with madrasas nationwide to hoist the Tricolour and sing the national anthem on Republic Day. It wants the Muslim seminaries to make their students remember the martyrs of the Freedom Struggle from 1857 to 1947.
The Muslim Rashtriya Manch, or Nationalist Muslim Front, has asked its conveners in 25 States to hold discussions with madrasas in their areas.
The Manch’s national leaders and State conveners will meet in Varanasi on January 20 and 21 at its national executive meeting to share details of how many madrasas have agreed to hoist the flag and sing the anthem. The Manch is seen as a platform for making Muslims more compatible with the dominant values of Hindus and is attempting to enlist Muslim support for a Ram temple in Ayodhya, arguing that Muslims have no documentary proof of ownership of the site. Senior RSS functionary Indresh Kumar is its mentor.
Ironically, explicit acceptance of the national flag was one of the conditions the Home Ministry, led by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, laid down for the RSS in 1948 before revoking the ban on it after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. The Sangh has a saffron flag.
At a recent Sangh seminar on secularism, key functionaries said many members of the Flag Committee, constituted by the Congress Working Committee in 1931, had seen the idea of representing different religions on the flag — a reference to the Tricolour — as “communal.” They said the Flag Committee wanted a saffron flag with a blue charkha.
The Manch, however, says it wants to see the Tricolour flutter atop madrasas on Republic Day and Independence Day. “We want this practice to be routine. Madrasas should do this each year on January 26 and August 15,” Manch convener Mohammad Afzal told The Hindu . He said he would himself want to be present at two madrasas on Republic Day.
Traditionally, the Sangh Parivar has been wary of madrasas. The BJP’s hard-line MP Sakshi Maharaj said in September 2014 that madrasas were imparting “education in terror” and “love jihad”.
Mr. Afzal, however, maintained that he did not find any sign of religious radicalism in the madrasas. “Some moulvis may be radical, especially outside India, but I haven’t come across radical elements in the madrasas. In the Kashmiri Gate area of Delhi where I live, there are five madrasas. They don’t teach people how to use guns,” he said. Mr. Afzal said the organisation’s Ulema Conference held in last August had said there should be both religious and secular training in madrasas and they should follow the mantra: “terror, riots and oppression, quit India.”
