UP Polls: RSS begins massive outreach program for Muslim women; unveils book Dastan-e-Yogi

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Wednesday launched a massive outreach program to Muslim women in election-bound Uttar Pradesh.  As part of the move, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar presided over a day-long meeting of the women wing of the RSS-affiliated Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) in Delhi.

During the meeting, which deliberated on various issues pertaining to empowerment and welfare of Muslim women, Kumar also unveiled a book titled Dastan-e-Yogi - a biography of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The book is an Urdu translation of 'The Monk Who Became Chief Minister', authored by Shantanu Gupta and released originally in 2017.

The RSS leader told reporters that women attendees thanked the MRM, the court, and the Modi government for giving them "freedom from the pain of instant triple talaq".

"The meeting concluded with the participants (Muslim women) raising a significant question that what have they got from the parties that they loved and voted for in past 60 years, other than backwardness, poverty, hunger, insult, unemployment, the pain of instant triple talaq and hatred against the Hindus," he said.

Kumar, who is the RSS national executive member and founder of the MRM, said Muslim women will take the message from the meeting to the community through social media and various meetings in an effort to show people "a correct picture" of the RSS and the BJP.

He also stated that the move to raise the legal marriage age from 18 to 21 has been welcomed by Muslim women. They believe that increasing the minimum age of marriage will give them the opportunity to complete their higher education, at least up to the level of graduation, or acquire some skills which will help them support their family in the future, said Kumar. 

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who had announced in October that her party will give 40 per cent tickets to women in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls due early next year, recently accused the rival parties of ignoring women, saying they started talking about them only after her party gave the slogan of "Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon" (I am a girl and I can fight).

Image: PTI