Two religious leaders in the United States who appeared alongside Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat at an event in New York on Saturday said that the organisers had not told them that the Hindutva leader would also be taking part.Bhagwat addressed about 5,000 Hindu Americans and Hindu non-resident Indians at Madison Square Garden at an event titled “One World One Humanity”.The RSS is the ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Adriene Thorne, a minister of the Riverside Church, said that she was “duped” into participating in the event.In a social media post on Wednesday, Thorne said that she received repeated invitations over six weeks from a group called The World Council of Religious Leaders. She said that the organisers described the event as an interfaith gathering.She added that the organisers “withheld critical information” as she did not know that Bhagwat would be the central figure at the event.“I was never told that the RSS was involved, I was never told about AHEAD or any organisation connected to Hindu nationalism,” she said. Thorne described her appearance at the event as a “terrible mistake”.The American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue Forum, one of the organisers of the event, is a nonprofit organisation that promotes civic engagement among communities in the US, according to its website.
