By Tarushi Aswani
New Delhi: On August 29, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat addressed more than 5,000 American Hindus and non-resident Hindu Indians at Madison Square Garden at an event titled “One World One Humanity”.
Both the before and after timelines of the event have been especially dramatic.
The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and allied community and faith organisations held a press conference in New York on August 25 to protest against Bhagwat’s event. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani also opposed the event publicly.
Now that the event has concluded, two religious leaders in the United States who appeared alongside Bhagwat at the event said that the organisers had not told them that the Hindutva leader would a part of the event.
In a video message she released on September 2, Adriene Thorne, a minister of the Riverside Church, said that she was duped into participating in the event. 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.
“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” she said in a video statement released after the event.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
