Mohan Bhagvatji’s Visit to the US.

In spite of the cacophonous noise made by the cabal of anti Hindu groups in the US I am pleased that the US did not buckle under the pressure and welcomed Mohan Bhagvatji. The anti Hindu groups believe that if you keep repeating a lie people will accept it as the truth. Apparently there was a truck going round in New York saying, ‘ RSS killed Gandhi’. Led by the wretched Hindus for Human Rights and many other religious organisations, the media and so called liberals no effort was spared to derail the visit of Bhagvatji. I am glad that the Hindus for Human Rights which are basically extremists who hate Hindus with passion were left licking their wounds. Their self importance has taken a pretty good hit. They can keep barking but Sanatan Dharma is too strong to be threatened by these losers. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) had urged Washington to revoke visas issued to Bhagvatji. Let us have a look at the Commissioners of this body. Its Chairman is Asif Mahmood also known as Asif Akbar. He has been most vocal in stopping the visit of Bhagvatji. He had demanded that RSS assets within the US should be frozen. Ce Ce Heil is the vice chair and a devout Christian. David Anderson is a Pastor, Gunisha Kaur is a Sikh, Rachel Laser is Jewish and Gene Mills is known to many Pastors. There is no Hindu representation in spite of there being 3.6 million Hindus in the US. Where are the Hindus of US to challenge this bias? There is no Buddhist commissioner either. There are 4.4 million Buddhists in the US.
Having said that, I believe that Bhagvatji was too keen to assure Madison Square gathering that Hindus believed in pluralism and in the idea Vasudev Kutumbakam. He said that those who believe in India without Muslims are not Hindus. This begs the question: who has ever talked about India without Muslims? This statement does not hold upto any scrutiny. How can you remove 200 million people even if you wanted to? The Constitution of India guarantees the rights of all its citizens. The anti Hindu forces are certainly not placated by Bhagvatji’s statement. That is because their aim is to remove Hindu Dharma from its roots. No amount of appeasement will satisfy them.
Both Christianity and Islam are proselytizing religions and they want as many Hindu converts as they can get. While in majority Christian and Islamic countries their ethos and values prevail they want to deny the same right to the Hindu majority in India. The hatred for PM Modi is for precisely the same reason. India’s enemies will rejoice to see any cracks between Hindus. Our History is full of betrayal. We should not fall into the trap by repeating past mistakes.
Bhagvatji talked about the Hindu belief that there can be different paths to God. I believe he should have backed it up with examples. Following the 7th-century Arab-Muslim conquest of Persia, Zoroastrians faced severe religious persecution. According to the traditional epic poem Qissa-i-Sanjan, groups of refugees from Greater Iran sailed to the western coast of India, landing at Sanjan in Gujarat. The local Hindu ruler, King Jadi Rana welcomed them. Known also as Parsis they have lived in India for almost 1,200 years. There has not been a single case of persecution and the Parsi community has made a huge contribution to India. Tibetan Buddhists fleeing persecution from the Chinese have been living in India for 67 years. They follow their religion and way of life with complete freedom. They have settlement areas in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and other states. India hosts the world’s largest Baha’i population outside Iran. They too were fleeing from religious persecution in Iran. They have a beautiful temple in the centre of Delhi. There has been a Jewish presence in India for 2000 years. There has not been any persecution and the Jewish community has made a great contribution to India. During the second world war Maharaja Digvijaysinhji sheltered hundreds of Polish children. He even arranged for their Christian teacher. There are 350,000 to 400,000 Anglo Indians in India. They feared that they would face persecution in India after independence. However they have never faced any persecution and live happily and follow their Christian faith. There are 28 Million Christians in India and they are practising their faith freely. The ones which are shouting loudly of persecution are the evangelists who want to convert Hindus by any means. The persecuted Ahamdiyas also practice their faith freely in India. In a Hindu majority India different faith groups
can live happilly. These minorities have assimilated in Indian society and understand that they have rights as well as responsibilities to be good citizens. Why can we not put our case to the world even though we have such an amazing heritage? The answer is we are completely outplayed in the field of propaganda and social media campaigns. We need to engage the best PR companies in the world to put our case. In this fast paced world we cannot continue to be so blase.
Mohan Bhagvatji’s contention that all paths lead to God runs into trouble because the Abrahamic religions do not believe in the idea of different paths to God. They firmly believe in their path only being right. Given this situation Hindus have to defend their religion if it is not to face an existential crisis. It seems that the RSS wants a strong Rashtra or nation in which religion or Dharma takes a second place. The idea of a Akhand Bharat stems from this concept of a Rashtra. It is a dangerous concept. The reality is that Hindus have to protect their Dharma from a galaxy of foes and the coming decades will determine whether we won the battle to save the soul of the holy land. It will be the greatest folly of Hindus if they fail to support the BJP in the next elections.
Nitin Mehta
2 September 2026