Bharat Jodo Yatra made RSS chief visit mosque; Modi will don cap: Digvijaya Singh

Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra has “compelled” RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to visit a madrasa and a mosque, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh claimed on Tuesday. He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon start wearing a “topi” (cap), referring to the skull cap worn by Muslims.

Singh, who heads the organising committee for the Yatra, claimed PM Modi wears a “topi” in Saudi Arabia and other countries but avoids doing so after returning to India. Significantly, Modi had refused to put on a skull cap offered by a Muslim cleric during his sadbhavna fast in Ahmedabad in September 2011 when he was chief minister of Gujarat.

“The BJP is targeting Rahul Gandhi these days because (RSS chief Mohan) Bhagwat started visiting madrasa and masjid (mosque) within a month of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. PM Modi will also start wearing a topi in a few days,” Singh told reporters in Indore.

Also read: Mohan Bhagwat is ‘rashtra pita’, says Imam after meeting RSS chief

Bhagwat visited a mosque and a madrasa in Delhi in September and held discussions with the All India Imam Organisation chief Umer Ahmed Ilyasi.

“Within two months of the Yatra (which started from Kanyakumari on September 7), a senior RSS leader had to say, ‘The poor of the country are becoming poorer and the rich are getting richer,’” Singh said. “You will see what happens when this yatra reaches its final destination, Srinagar,” he added.

“AAP and AIMIM BJP’s B team”

On President Droupadi Murmu attending the Madhya Pradesh government’s Janjatiya Gaurav Divas event in Shahdol district, Singh alleged the ruling BJP relies only on gimmicks in the name of the welfare of people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

“We are proud that Droupadi Murmu is the President of our country. We hope she will speak about atrocities committed on tribals in Madhya Pradesh. If she does not want to speak on this subject, she can give some time to our delegation to discuss this issue with her,” said the Rajya Sabha MP.

Also read: Explained: Behind the ‘bonhomie’ between RSS and Muslim leaders

Singh pointed out that Ramnath Kovind, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste, became President earlier. “The Prime Minister should say what benefit his government provided to crores of Dalits of the country during President Kovind’s tenure,” he said.

On the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehad ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) canvassing for the next month’s Gujarat Assembly elections, the Congress veteran reiterated that these parties were parts of the “Sangh’s vision of Congress-mukt Bharat.”

“They are the B team of BJP,” he alleged. Singh claimed that AAP and AIMIM, led by Asaduddin Owaisi, contested elections only to cut the votes of other parties to help the BJP.

(With agency inputs)