The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat strode into the Gyanvapi dispute, saying there was no need to find a ‘Shivling’ in every mosque and start a new dispute every day. He also said that the Gyanvapi matter involves some issues of faith and the court’s decision on it should be accepted by all.
“Why escalate the fight? Why look for a ‘Shivling’ in every Masjid?” Mohan Bhagwat said at RSS’s third-year officer training camp concluding ceremony in Nagpur on Thursday. He said that the RSS had already made it clear that its participation in the Ayodhya agitation was an exception.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat called for a “path through mutual agreement” on the controversy over the filming of the Gyanvapi mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi. The RSS chief’s statement defuses weeks of comments by right-wing groups and leaders that indicated the matter could turn into street mobilisation, making some draw parallels with the demolition of the Babri Masjid in UP’s Ayodhya in 1992.
“Gyanvapi matter is ongoing. We can’t change history. Neither today’s Hindus nor today’s Muslims created it. It happened at that time. Islam came from outside via attackers, in the attacks, they demolished Devsthans to exhaust the morale of those who wanted India’s independence,” Bhagwat said.
“We had special devotion towards some places and we spoke about them, but we shouldn’t bring out a new matter daily. Why should we escalate the dispute? We have devotion towards Gyanvapi and doing something as per that, it’s alright. But why look for Shivling in every masjid?” said the chief of the RSS, short for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s ideological mentor.
“If there are issues in mind, it will rise. It is not against anyone…Find out a path through mutual agreement…If a path does not always come out, people approach the court, and if it is done then whatever the court decides should be accepted. We should abide by the decisions, considering our judicial system pious and supreme. We should not question its decisions,” the RSS chief said.
Bhagwat said the RSS is not opposed to any form of worship and considers all of them holy. “We have no opposition against any form of worship; we accept them all and consider all of them holy. They may have adopted that form of worship, but they are descendants of our rishis, munis, and Kshatriyas. We are descendants of the same ancestors,” he said.
