On Saturday 30th July 2022, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will conduct an interfaith meeting as part of the Narendra Modi government’s initiatives to keep communal harmony. Religious leaders from several faiths will join the interreligious meeting. Sufi saints will also attend this summit, which will approve a peace, unity, and harmony resolution. Hazrath Syed Naseeruddin Chishty, the head of the All India Sufi SajjadaNasheen Council will also attend the meeting. Among other things, raging issues like blasphemy, population control, and hate slogans by radical Islamists will be discussed at the conference.
The interfaith conference on communal harmony is being held at the Constitution Club of India in New Delhi, and Ajit Doval is scheduled to address it at 4 PM today. The conference is being organised by the All Indi Sufi Sajjadanashin Council. 45 guests have been invited to the round table conference who belong to different religions and are from different parts of India. After the session, the invitees will jointly address the media. The issues which are going to be discussed will be then recommended to the central and state governments for implementation.
The main agendas of the round table conference are to create communal friendly environment in the society; to promote message of peace, love and harmony, the teachings of all religions; to eradicate hatred and enmity between the different communities; to strengthen the unity and the national integrity & to fight against radical thoughts; to discuss various issues i.e. Blasphemy Laws, Population Control, peace disturbing slogans “Sar Tan se Juda, Goli Maro Salo’n Ko”.
According to a report by the Hindustan Times, the interfaith conference is an initiative by the BJP-led government to alleviate religious tensions in the aftermath of the uproar over suspended BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma’s statements and the extreme reaction of a fraction of Barelvi Muslims. Following the controversy over Nupur Sharma’s statement, the nation saw a number of murders, including the beheading of Kanhaiya Lal, a Hindu tailor, in Udaipur by two Islamists who also threatened Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Similar murders took place in Maharashtra and Karnataka. National Investigation Agency is looking into these cases.
Sufi connection of the beheadings
As there will be involvement of Sufis in this interreligious meeting, it is notable that people associated with the Sufi shrine of Ajmer Dargah were found to be involved in the murder of Kanhaiya Lal and subsequent incidents of hate-mongering. The Khadims of Ajmer Dargah continued to deliver hate speeches against Hindus and call for the beheading of Nupur Sharma.
Days after the gruesome murder of Kanhaiya Lal, it came to light that a Khadim of Ajmer Dargah named Gauhar Chisti had met one of the killers of the Hindu tailor. Gauhar had called for the beheading of ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma on 17th June 2022 for allegedly committing ‘blasphemy’. After making the provocative speech, he traveled to Udaipur to meet Riyaz Attari, one of the murderers of Kanhaiya Lal. Interestingly, Riyaz issued threats to Sharma and her supporters through a video on the same day. Gauhar Chishti was arrested by the police from Hyderabad on 14th July 2022.
Ajit Doval has previously met with religious leaders to discuss interfaith issues. He attended a meeting with religious leaders in 2019 following the Ayodhya judgment.
