RSS chief’s ‘change of heart’: Commentators dismiss Mohan’s makeover

Having been under constant attack and criticism from various quarters including the Congress President Rahul Gandhi, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh organised a three-day lecture series, ‘The Future of Bharat: An RSS Perspective’ in New Delhi, where he spoke on a number of different topics including his concept of Hindutva, Congress’s role in India’s independence struggle and the recent Supreme Court verdict on Section 377, among many other topics.

At the event held at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat went on to state that all communities residing in India followed Hindutva and that even devotion towards the motherland is considered to be Hindutva.

Mohan Bhagwat, on Tuesday, said that “Hindu Rashtra doesn't mean there's no place for Muslims. The day it becomes so, it won't be Hindutva. Hindutva talks about one world family”.

Mohan Bhagwat also deigned to acknowledged the role that Congress had played in India’s independence.

"Times are changing and the society has to take a call on such issues," said Mohan Bhagwat on the Supreme Court verdict on 377, adding that the LGBT+ community is very much part of the society and should not be isolated.

These comments were perhaps meant to be music to the ears of liberal, progressive and secular sections of Indian society. But, very few were fooled by Bhagwat’s apparent change of heart. After all, these comments come right after Bhagwat’s ‘wild dogs’ comment aimed at religious minorities at the second World Hindu Congress in Chicago on September 8. Hence, political commentators were having none of new, 'liberal’ Mohan Bhagwat. Here are some of their comments: