India's Muslim MP Owaisi slams 'elite' minority leaders for meeting Hindu RSS chief: Have Indian Muslims been split?

Amid Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of India's right-wing Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), meeting some Muslim leaders which a section of the country's media called an unprecedented outreach, Asaduddin Owaisi, a Muslim parliamentarian known for his strong opinions, slammed the leaders from the minority community speaking with Bhagwat as "elite" who "have nothing to do with ground reality".

Owaisi, the president of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and represents Hyderabad in the Lok Sabha or Lower House of the Indian parliament, said this while speaking to reporters on a meeting between Bhagwat and five Muslim leaders in August, NDTV reported. The meeting took place reportedly "to strengthen communal harmony".

The RSS is the ideological mentor of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The five leaders included India's former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi; Delhi's former lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung; former chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University lieutenant general Zameed Uddin Shah; former parliamentarian Shahid Siddiqui; and businessman Saeed Shervani.

"These people went and met him (Bhagwat). The whole world knows the RSS' ideology, and you go and meet him. This elite section of the Muslim community, whatever they do, is the truth. But when we fight politically for our fundamental rights, we are shown in a bad light," Owaisi was heard saying in a video of the media interaction, the report added.

"This elite layer, which thinks it is very knowledgeable and has no touch with the ground reality, they are living comfortably and they go and meet the RSS chief. It is their democratic right, I do not question that, but they too don't have a right to question us," he said.

Quraishi said that during the August meeting, Bhagwat had told him that he was concerned about the situation unfolding in India.

"I'm not happy with the atmosphere of disharmony. It is completely wrong. The country can move ahead only with cooperation and cohesion," he quoted Bhagwat as saying.

On Thursday (22), Bhagwat met Umer Ajmed Ilyasi, the chief cleric of All India Imam Organisation at a mosque in the heart of Delhi. It was called a "closed door" affair which lasted for more than an hour.

Muslim cleric calls Bhagwat 'father of the nation'

Ilyasi called Bhagwat as "rastra pita" (father of the nation) and "rastra-rishi" (saint of the nation).

“Mohan Bhagwat ji visited on my invitation today. He's 'rashtra-pita' and 'rashtra-rishi', a good message will go out from his visit. Our ways of worshipping god are different, but the biggest religion is humanity. We believe the country comes first,” Ilyasi was quoted as saying by Asian News International.