RSS’s Muslim Manch to promote communal amity with ‘rakhis’

Raksha Bandhan, among the six major festivals that the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh RSS) celebrates annually, will this year be used by the Sangh Parivar to attain the twin objectives of promoting communal amity, besides mobilising public opinion against using Chinese goods.

This year, the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), an RSSbacked body, will get women from the minority community to tie the rakhi to various Sangh leaders who will assure them of protection. Girls from the minority community will also be encouraged to tie rakhi to Hindu boys. The Hindu girls will also tie rakhis to Muslim boys as part of its communal amity push.

Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) pracharak and MRM leader Mahirajdhwaj says rakhi will be used to promote allreligion amity. “People of all religions, not just Muslims, will gather and tie rakhis to each other,” he told HT.

However, sources said, the Sangh’s communal amity push was also aimed at using the occasion to tackle the problem of ‘Love Jihad’ where RSS believes Hindu women were enticed by Muslim youths into affair or marriage and discarded later.

Love jihad had become an issue in 2017 UP polls, especially in western Uttar Pradesh where some youths allegedly belonging to Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) were accused of lynching a Muslim man in Bulandshahr on suspicion that he had played a part in helping a youth elope with a Hindu girl.

“Yes, this communal amity push will surely help in checking all social evils, be it love jihad or anything else,” an RSS leader said.

The RSS will also get ‘divyangs’ or handicapped people to tie ‘rakhis’ on the occasion in the state capital on August 5. In the run-up to the festival, hundreds of Sangh volunteers have also stepped up a campaign, making people aware of the need to shun Chinese goods.

WhatsApp messages’ like ‘Wear an Indian Rakhi if you care about your country’ have started being circulated in Uttar Pradesh, a campaign timed amid an increasingly bitter New DelhiBeijing standoff over Doklam, which is under China’s control but claimed by Bhutan. Sangh leaders say the campaign is also aimed at weakening the Chinese financially.

The RSS has previously campaigned against Chinese crackers during Diwali and its chief, Mohan Bhagwat, called for a boycott of Chinese goods earlier this year.

The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), an RSS affiliate floated to promote Indian products, will follow up the initiative with a twoday meeting in Gonda from July 29. Part of the campaign includes door-to-door contacts, making people aware of how the Chinese are allying with Pakistan to create disturbances in India.

Sangh volunteers at the Gonda meeting will discuss ways to create awareness among people to boycott Chinese products. Bhola Nath of Swadeshi Jagran Manch told HT that a massive rally will be organised at Delhi’s Ramlila ground in October.