Ambassadors of five Islamic countries attended an Iftar party at the Parliament House Annexe, organised by the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), an organisation closely linked with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, in New Delhi on Saturday evening.
The first-of-its kind event, dubbed as an international “inter faith dialogue” by the MRM, was attended by the ambassadors of Egypt, Yemen, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan and senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar. While the list of invitees included the entire Union cabinet, Mr. Kumar said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “merely been informed.”
Mr. Kumar is the co-founder and the current Marg Darshak (guiding light) of the MRM. He was among those named in the charge sheet in the October 2007 Ajmer Dargah blasts case. In 2011, another accused had named him as the mastermind of the blast in his confessional statement to an Ajmer court.
However, an MRM official who introduced Mr Kumar to the audience, described the RSS leader as “the target of UPA’s conspiracies to tie him down in criminal cases.” In 2014 the RSS had deputed him to Varanasi to campaign for Mr Modi.
Even though the Sangh does not include MRM in the list of its 36 affiliates, the organisation was founded in 2002 by the former RSS chief K. S. Sudarshan and has had close links with the Sangh.
‘Cultural initiative’Denying that the Iftaar was organised with a political motive, Mr Kumar told The Hindu : “This is the first dialogue of its kind. It is a social and cultural initiative completely away from the shadow of politics.”
“We were not created for riots or hatred but for brotherhood and peace,” Mr. Kumar later said, addressing the audience.
He said the MRM had taken several initiatives among the Muslim community during the month of Ramzan to spread the message of “peace and brotherhood.”
