RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat met Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, chief Imam of All India Imam Organization, on Thursday in Delhi which has become now the media talk of the town.

The Congress said it was also a reaction to the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra”It has only been 15 days since the Bharat Jodo Yatra has started and a spokesperson of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party said ‘Godse Murdabad”.

Ministers have become concerned over the hatred spread through the media and Bhagwat has reached out to imams, “See what happens next” Pawan Khera tweeted. The linking up was part of the RSS’s ongoing outreach to different communities and faiths.

Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh extended an invitation to Mohan Bhagwat saying “We request Bhagwatji that when a few days of the yatra have had such a vast impact on him, he should participate in the Bharat Jodo Yatra for atleast an hour, walk with Rahul Gandhiji with a tricolour in hand, raise the slogan of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and Unite India.

On Thursday, Mohan Bhagwat went to a mosque on Kasturba Gandhi Marg and then visited Madarsa Tajweedul Quran in Azadpur. This was the first time he visited a madrassa.

A Sangh functionary said that during the madrasa visit, he interacted with children who recited the Quran and raised slogans of ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Jai Hind’. During his interaction, he explained to them that all religions must be respected.

All India Imam Organisation chief Umer Ahmed Ilyasi described Mohan Bhagwat as ‘Rashtra pita’ to which Bhagwat objected and said there is only one father of the nation and said everyone is ‘Bharat ki santan’ (child of the nation).

Earlier, Mohan Bhagwat met Muslim intellectuals, including Delhi’s former lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung, former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi, former Aligarh Muslim University vice chancellor Zameer Uddin Shah, former MP Shahid Siddiqui as well as businessman Saeed Shervani.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said those who meet Mohan Bhagwat are elite Muslims and have nothing to do with the ground reality.