RSS ally to hold meet with Muslim experts

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Muslim Rashtriya Manch is attempting to reach out to Muslims to thrash out issues they believe are confronting the community.

To this end, Muslim Rashtriya Manch has organised a national conclave on November 27 at Agra in Uttar Pradesh and will invite top clerics from different schools of followers such as Deobandis and Barelvis and other experts from the community, said a Manch functionary.

The RSS outfit will meet in New Delhi next Thursday to finalise its agenda for the brainstorming session.The Modi government and the RSS are on the same page as far as the triple talaq and common civil code issues are concerned. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a recent public meeting, had called for a review of the process of calling off marriages among Muslims, in order to ensure dignity and equal rights to women.

Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">After the RSS Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal meeting concluded a few days back, its general secretary Bhayyaji Joshi had commented on similar lines on the topic.

Though Joshi described the triple talaq issue as “an internal problem of the Muslim community”, he had argued that “discrimination based on gender is not right”.Interestingly, he had advocated that the judiciary should take a “humane approach” towards the issue, hinting that it requires a review beyond religious tenets. The Supreme Court is hearing a petition challenging the triple talaq concept of annulling marriage and the Centre, too, has sided with the petitioners.

On the Uniform Civil Code, the Sangh senior functionary had remarked that “law must be upheld without discrimination” and without disturbing cultural traditions and social fabric.Muslims, however, are opposed to the government’s intervention in their personal laws.