Mohan Bhagwat's overture to Muslims

Bhagwat's plea for social harmony tries to repackage the Hindutva project as accommodative and tolerant of minorities

On the same day that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat visited the office and a madrasa run by a self-styled 'leader' of Muslim clerics, five prominent Muslims, made public that they too had held a meeting with him a month earlier. Was Mohan Bhagwat serious about doing a makeover of RSS's anti-minority image? Or should one look beyond the media distraction at another event that occurred nearly simultaneously on September 22? Within hours of Bhagwat's visit, coordinated raids on the allegedly radical Islamist outfit, the Popular Front of India (PFI), were carried out by the National Investigation Agency