Grandpa Don’t Preach – Blood is on your sleeves
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By Syed Ali Mujtaba, Edited by Adam Rizvi, The India Observer, TIO: RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s speech at Madison Square in New York, ‘Call to Action’ for peace, needs public scrutiny. This is pertinent because at a time when the persecution of Muslims in India has become a global folklore, Mohan Bhagwat’s speech has a different tone and tenor that’s striking a conciliatory tone. 
On Saturday, August 30, 2026, Mohan Bhagwat in New York said, ‘Diversity is the rule of nature, but unity is the truth underpinning it. Diversity is a decoration of our inner unity; it must be accepted, respected, and preserved.’ He added that, along with one’s own identity, that of others needs to be protected.
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Bhagwat said, “In 2018, during my lecture series in Delhi, several Muslim brothers present there asked me, ‘You are a Hindu organization. You speak of Hindu Rashtra. What about us Muslims? Will you drive us out?’ I told them, ‘No, that is not Hindutva. If any Hindu thinks that there should be no Muslim in Bharat, he ceases to be a Hindu.”
Bhagwat goes on: “If you want to call yourself Hindu, you must believe that all paths are leading to the same. And every human has dignity. There is no difference between human beings.”
He described how human beings “stray into traps of me and mine”, saying that ‘petty likes, dislikes as well as selfish desires make individuals go astray from the right path.’
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Bhagwat said politics has now become a “game of self-interest.” “This is where the problem lies. When there is me and I, there is no solution, but when there is we and ours, then there is a solution.”
These sugar-coated words of Mohan Bhagwat may sound like music to those who don’t know what Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is doing in India.
Mohan Bhagwat heads this organization that is structured on a massive volunteer network with an active cadre size of approximately 4 to 6 million members.
The RSS operates at a dual level. One works at the grassroots community service, public discipline, and promoting Hindu cultural values; the second uses its huge volunteers for political intimidation, polarization, and aggressive ideological interventions.
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The media and the government downplay the ugly face of the RSS and highlight its voluntary service in building the nation.
The true face of the RSS is its engaged in religious polarization and in the rejection of separate minority identities, a fact Bhagwat denies in the New York speech. The RSS cadre openly preaches that India is a Hindu nation where religious minorities like Muslims and Christians are outsiders.
In this backdrop, two reports have recently been published that reflect on the activities of the Hindu nationalists. First is a report by India Persecution Tracker, a quarterly bulletin by the South Asia Justice Campaign that documents human rights abuses against religious minorities. This document describes a growing pattern of violence, state coercion and discrimination against Muslims across India.
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The India Persecution Tracker report has recorded that there were 44 Muslims killed in the first seven months of 2026, more than 3,000 Muslim homes were demolished, and thousands of Muslims were arrested and detained.
The second report is by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) that has corroborated the first report.
The USCIRF report has claimed that religious freedom conditions in India remained on a downward trajectory in 2026.
It alleged that systematic and ongoing persecution of multiple minority groups is going on in India. There is a denial of citizenship and voting rights and enforcement of harsh anti-conversion and cow slaughter laws that impede religious freedom in India.
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The USCIRF said Indian authorities continue to detain and imprison individuals for exercising their freedom of religion or belief or advocating the rights of others.
The USCIRF further says the Indian government routinely utilizes internet shutdowns as a tool to silence free speech, including about persecution such as social media posts about mob violence or demolitions; calls for help during anti-minority riots.
The USCIRF report said, “Hindu nationalist mob ( read RSS) activity is rampant, and occurs with impunity, with little or no accountability for violent attacks against religious minority communities.”
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As usual, the Indian authorities strongly rejected both reports. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal rejected international reports, calling them biased and malicious. Jaiswal stated that ‘the commission continually misrepresents facts and presents a selective, distorted view of India that’s questionable.
In this context, Bhagwat’s speech in New York has to be assessed. The Hindu ideologue in a foreign land is pretending to preach unity of faith and the diversity of religion in India. However, the dark face of the RSS and its head Mohan Bhagwat is that it’s engaged in the persecution of Muslims and Christians in India.
US Congresswoman Ms. Ilhan Omar described the persecution of Muslims in India reaching the “eighth stage of genocide.” The RSS and other Hindu-right-wing organizations have fiercely opposed such claims.
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Even though Mohan Bhagwat does not control the politics of India, its organization, the RSS, remains the fountainhead of the BJP, the ruling party in India. The BJP is implementing the agenda of the RSS. Under its benign protection, the RSS cadre is persecuting the Muslims. The RSS cadre is involved in building a Hindu Rashtra whose foundation is on hate and certainly not on glorifying the diversity that Mohan Bhagwat had preached in New York.
So, Grandpa Don’t Preach – Blood is on your sleeves
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